Naruto: Heroes Path
by Brandon Storm
Summary: Atsuko Hyuga, heiress of the Hyuga clan, daughter of the seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, reincarnation of strongest of the tailed beasts! Based on the Heroes path comic on Snafu comics.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**: Hello there people, upon seeing the tragedy that is the apparently discontinued Heroes Path comic on Snafu I have taken it upon myself to correct that tragedy and as such I present my own version of the Heroes path comic. As usual my Beta Bubbajack will be helping me out as best he can, I don't own Naruto, Heroes Path, or any of the rest of it and I'm doing this on my own without the permission or knowledge of the authors. I will be publishing on a weekly basis as best I can every Saturday.

Also on a unrelated note if any of you want me to continue Demon X Reaper at this point in time then I had better start seeing some interest in it again! Enjoy.

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><p>A Glowing nine tailed entity jumped through several tree tops, spotting a fortress nearby he made his move, creating a giant shurikun made of wind in one hand he threw it at the facility and slashed open a giant hole through the roof, by which he entered the facility.<p>

"You honor me with your presence Hokage." The man who was speaking looked young, twenties maybe, but his white hair made him look older, and he had a pair of bright green eyes, in addition to his face he had a buttoned up white lab coat. "Should I presume that you are here to aid me in my research?"

"You know damn well what I'm here for you bastard!" The previously glowing entity dropped his sage/tailed beast cloak was revealed to be a blond spiky haired man, blue eyes, and whisker marks leading from his nose and across his cheeks, as a particular eye catcher he had a bandaged fist replacing his right. He was wearing black flame clothing, a robe that had seven printed on the back. Underneath that robe he was wearing black clothing, a heavy stitched and thick padded flack jacket. "Where is she!?" The blonde haired man growled!

"You'll have to do better then that sir, there are a lot of 'shes' here after all." The amused scientist retorted.

A large light blue electrified Chidori blade slashed a corner off of the the building, standing in the resulting opening was a familiar black haired man, he wore a white kimono with a purple rope serving as a sash, with strange swirled red and purple eyes and a similarly mechanical hand replacing his left.

"Sasuke!" The formerly angry and now surprised Hokage gasped!?

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" The significantly calmer man named Sasuke asked.

"Same as you I bet!" Naruto responded as he accusingly pointed to the scientist.

Sasuke leveled his Chidori blade at the lab coated man's head.

"My interests start with this man and ends with the people he took from my village. Presuming that we share the former I propose we divide him vertically and have half of him taken to each of our villages, presuming that we share the latter we can look for them after dealing with this pest!"

"Sounds good to me!" The smiling Hokage stated in a matter of fact fashion.

Both of the village leaders eyes changed as they brought out their aces, Sasuke's left eye turned into a six pointed star, his Mangekyo Sharingan, and his right a swirl of purple and black, his Rinnegan, while Naruto's resembled crosses for pupils both of them had red sclera, a clear sign that he was again using the Sage Tailed beast combination. Sasuke formed what could best be described as a fire spear in his hands while Naruto another of his massive Rasenshurikun.

"Gentlemen you insult my intelligence! In the course of 48 hours I simultaneously pissed off two of the most powerful ninja to exist." The man pulled off his coat revealing a circular object embedded in his back. "Under what circumstances did you believe I would delude myself into thinking that I would live to see tomorrow?"

The explosion destroyed one wall and blew a rather large hole into the ground. Sasuke had shielded himself using what could only be described as a giant grotesque hand coming out of his shoulder while Naruto had relied on the Rasenshurikun he had created to counteract the explosive force. When they looked up they saw the man was gone altogether.

"Man has a point there." Naruto said, returning to relative normalcy.

"We can have our men dissect this place later, for the time being we have to find our missing people." Sasuke jumped down into the pit of rubble and examined it closely. "Start digging!"

Sasuke brought out his giant arms and began scooping out chunks of rock much to the confusion of Naruto.

"What the heck is that going to do!?" Naruto shouted, growing frustrated.

"The way the rubble is arranged is off, it should be deeper from where that bastard blew himself up but instead it's leveled." Sasuke answered waving to the rubble.

"Not following you." The slightly calmed Naruto asked?

"Something about mad scientists I learned from Orochimaru is that they always have safe room made out of stronger material then the rest of the facility where they store their research materials. Presuming the nature of our missing people..." Naruto got the just of what Sasuke was saying. Transforming back into his 'Sage Beast form' he took it one step further transforming into a gigantic nine tailed fox. First he used his paws to scoop out the rubble, next digging into the metal roof of the safe room he peeled it off. "Subtle."

The Safe room resembled a nursery from hell, inside a total of nine cribs plus a cell, looking inside the cell Sasuke spotted someone familiar.

"Which one are you?" The ever suspicious Sasuke asked?

"I'm me." An timid voice replied, and as a result Sasuke tore down the door revealing a captive orange haired child.

"Jugo what's going on in this place?" Sasuke said indicating the entire facility.

"After I was captured the scientists here started to take samples of my body. Not long after I started to hear crying, the little ones I presume." Jugo said, coming out of his hiding hole.

Naruto shrunk back down to his normal size and started inspecting the cribs, finding the one he was looking for he grasped the child within.

"Atsuko!" Naruto examined his daughter to make sure she was okay, and found something anger inspiring. "Sasuke what do you know about this?"

Sasuke examined Atsuko closely, an entire arm turned red with a seal on her neck, it best resembled a pentagon.

"We need to bring Sakura in on this!" Sasuke barked, aware of what was going on.

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><p>A nearby camp had been made into a makeshift nursery, the mothers of the kidnapped children were gathered from the five great nations that they were taken from. Atsuko had been reunited with her mother Hinata Hyuga while Naruto was discussing what was happening to the children with his old teammates Sakura and Sasuke.<p>

"Sakura what the heck is going on here!?" Naruto asked indicating the entire facility.

"All nine of the children have been infected with a new variant of the curse seal. Unlike the heaven seal like the one Sasuke uses which uses a combination of his chakra and nature energy this one seems to use a combination of tailed beast chakra and nature energy, a Hell Seal if you will." The pink haired woman in a lab coat holding a clip board answered.

"Give it to me strait Sakura, how bad is it?" Naruto asked leaning against a wall.

"The Heaven seal was designed by Orochimaru to wear away the mind and chakra of it's host and replace it with Orochimaru's. This isn't a problem for Sasuke since we used his own chakra instead of Orochimaru's for his seal. But these 'Hell Seals' on the other hand are designed to work in the same way as Orochimaru's, slowly transforming it's host into a tailed beast over a period of time." Sakura said explaining a nearby chart.

"What about Atsuko!?" Naruto asked pointing over to his wife holding his daughter

"The Nine tails, Kurama. You can tell by her arm, it has been mutated by the demon chakra in the same vein as Sora's was from way back when. I'm sorry Naruto but I can't reverse it, and there isn't a way we can remove the seal." Sakura led the pair over to a series of medical equipment and supplies, most notably a large lock like device. "I have however devised a way to restrict the damage the seal does, including adding one of our own to the mix. These bandages and this lock are made from a combination of materials that resist and inhibit the flow of Chakra. This will add to the containment of the Demon Chakra." Sakura said, gathering the supplies as she started to carry them over to Hinata.

"There is another layer of security to the seal we can add." Naruto and Sakura turned to face Sasuke, whom was sitting down on a bed next to his old teammates. "Ignorance. As they grow and get stronger they will eventually be able wear down the seals preventing the spread of the chakra. The temptation to use this power is extremely high, particularly in a life threatening situation, but if she is left ignorant to this then it will reduce the risk that this temptation presents."

"Are you suggesting that we keep her in the dark about this!?" Naruto angrily asked.

"Precisely. I know how you felt about the Nine-tails being kept from you Naruto, but for her sake this is the best course of action." Sasuke calmly explained, a tinge of regret in his eyes.

"Seal it Sakura, I'll have to talk to Kurama about this." A once again calmed Naruto ordered.

Naruto sat down in the lotus position and began meditating, a few moments later he appeared in a inner world of sorts, a dark cave like area a jail cell swung open lazily, water hid any recognition of a floor though the water was only about a foot deep. Inside that open jail cell was a gigantic red haired monster fox.

"Hello partner: something on your mind?" The fox asked without moving his mouth.

"You already know about Atsuko?" Naruto asked looking up at the giant creature.

"Of course, we do share a set of ears and eyes after all. Not one day after your daughter was born she was swooped up in the dead of night and whisked away to this goddamned place and experimented on." The fox stated lowering himself to Naruto's level.

"What's your opinion about this Kurama?" Naruto asked now on his feet.

"I'm as surprised as you are about this. I must admit I find the idea of a daughter intriguing Naruto, but I don't want one at the cost of yours. If she takes after me then she's not going to be happy about being stuck inside someone else I will guarantee you that. But if your daughter takes after you then the two of them might just reach a understanding." Kurama explained sympathetically.

"But chances are it will be the same kind of bumpy road you and I went through. Great." Naruto said with a groan.

"Indeed. For now we follow the Uchia's plan to suppress my daughter and buy time, then when the time is right we shall train them to work as one being and hope they don't kill each other along the way." Kurama said lifting himself back into sitting position.

"Hmm..."

Now that was settled Naruto returned to the real world where he saw that the sealing ceremony had been completed, Atsuko's arm was bandaged and secured by a clamp.

"Yah, we're going with your plan Sasuke, until we figure out how to fix this mess you and I will be working day and night to find a way of keeping the beast within from taking over her body." Naruto said holding his arms in a cross on his chest.

"There we agree Naruto. I'm not going to abandon you and your family to deal with this on your own. But there is another matter we need to discuss." Sasuke was handed a folder by one of his subordinates, perusing it's contents he pulled out a picture of a severed hand, burn marks as if it was blown off. "My men recovered this from the rubble, we believe it to be the severed hand of the man who we chased here and who appeared to have been running the experiments going on at this facility. As you know I was once able to restore Orochimaru to life by combining three items. The first was one of his curse seals which contained a sample of his chakra and his mind, which these people obviously have intimate knowledge of. The second is a large portion of Jugo's body which based on the fact that he's been reduced to a child's size they clearly have. The third is Orochimaru's flesh which based on this photo..." Sasuke drew Naruto's attention to the absence of a pinky in the photo, which rather than being removed in the blast appears to have been cut off "they also have. And that's just assuming that he wasn't a person of interest in whatever organization he works for. He did after all blow himself up!"

Naruto's face cringed with anger at the news.

"Damn!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors notes**: As promised here we have chapter two on Saturday, and once again I find myself with a disappointing lack of reviews. Thus I am sad to report that the promised third installment of this story, finished although still being edited, will not be published next week if I don't see at least one review. It doesn't have to be your opinion but a, Hey great story keep them coming, would be very much appreciated.

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><p>"Stupid spoiled brat!" The leader of a trio of thugs growled.<p>

It had been nine years since Atsuko had been born, kidnapped, and experimented on. Unsurprisingly she had grown a bit since then, she was the spitting image of her mother at her age with fair skin, dark black hair and almost indistinguishable white eyes with just a tinge of violet, the one exception was a set of whisker marks running down from her nose and across her cheeks. She was also wearing loose fitting black clothing with a white swirl pattern on her shirt, what passed for casual wear in the Hyuuga clan. She wasn't in much of a better position right now then she was way back then, she had been cornered in a alley way by a trio of bullies who had already knocked her to the ground and making her cry.

"Getting anything she wants just cause she's the Hokage's daughter!" One of the subordinate thugs joined in.

The leader of the trio was wearing a white and black stripe shirt, he had tan skin and a buzz-cut. The two subordinates appeared to be twins, wearing matching jet black shirts.

"You said it Ichi!" The second thug added.

"Sorry!" Atsuko sobbed, a welt on the side of her face for her troubles.

Meanwhile down the street a pair of children walking down the street. The odd thing about them was that one of them was riding on the other's shoulders.

"45. 46. 47." The child on top counted.

The smaller of the pair riding on the other's shoulders was a brown haired girl, she was also fair skinned and black eyes. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt with blue overalls and was carrying with her a stop watch, a water canteen and a bag of potato chips.

"Water! WATER!" The larger one on the bottom begged.

The larger one immediately grabbed the canteen and downed a large portion of it's contents. He was a large child, a whole foot higher then most his age and a matching gut. He has slightly darker skin, red hair, and swirl patterns on his cheeks. He was wearing a stained white shirt in combination with ill fitting shorts.

"47 seconds. You're such a wuss Choza!" The laughing little lady mocked.

"I'm carrying you Shikai aren't I? Your turn FYI." The larger boy coyly countered as they continued to walk down the street.

"Touche." Shikai reset the watch timer and plucked a potato chip from the bag. She was about to drop it in her mouth when suddenly they heard the sound of crying from the nearby alley way. "You hear that Choza?"

"Yah it's coming from that alleyway over there!" Choza stated pointing at the alleyway in question.

"Chips will have to wait Choza." Shikai said putting her chip away.

Choza, still carrying Shikai, ran over to the alley where they saw the trio intimidating Atsuko.

"Shikai..."

"Run away and live to fight another day I get the just." Shikai said grabbed onto a nearby storm drain and climbed to a fire escape above the alley way.

"Hey you three!" The three turned around to face Choza, who was crossing his arms and scowling angrily. "You have one chance to leave her alone and never bother her again!"

"Buzz off fatzo!" The leader shooed.

Line officially crossed. Choza jumped into the air and landed butt to face on top of Ichi's head, followed up by a loud fart, the visible green gas forming a sizable cloud of gas.

"GET THIS MANIAC OFF OF ME!" The leader screamed banging his fist.

The other two had their own problems, Shikai had ground the chips into dust and threw the crumbs into the faces of the two remaining thugs resulting in painful burning in the eyes.

"UGH! WHAT THE HECK IS THIS STUFF!?" The two shouted simultaneously attempting to rub the crubs out of their eyes.

"Cayenne pepper flavoring. Only the hottest." Shikai said rolling the bag up for disposal.

"HEY...!" Choza got up, stepping on the thug he was sitting on in the groin, and glared at Shikai sourly "DID YOU CRUSH ALL THE CHIPS!?"

The trio wisely choose to vacate the area. With that done Shikai pulled out the final chip from her pocket.

"Last one. Of course if you want to finish our bet..."

Shikai prepared to drop the chip into her mouth. Suddenly Choza all but jumped to Skikai's level reaching for the chip desperately.

"The last bite! The end of the meal, the most precious morsel. I won't let any one take the last piece away from me!"

"Oh you wanted this? Here you go." Shikai dropped the final chip into Choza's hand who then foolishly ate it, and immediately dropped back to the ground from the extreme pain in his mouth, leaving him in a state of semi passed out on the the ground due to cayenne induced heat stroke. Atsuko, still a little dazed by the odd ball pair, crawled over to Choza to make sure he was okay.

"Are you okay?" Atsuko said examining the larger child.

When he didn't answer Atsuko experimentally poked him, still no response.

"In coming!" Shikai said crawling over

Atsuko moved out of the way in time for Shikai to land on Chuzo, followed by opening the canteen and dumping it's contents into Chuzo's mouth, prompting a sigh of relief.

"Feel better now?" The cocky grinned Shikai asked.

"Thanks Shikai." Choza said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ah excuse me?" The pair looked over to Atsuko who had gone from dazed to completely lost. "Should you do stuff like that to him?"

"Ah don't worry the fat tub of lard here is so full of it he can take anything you throw at him!" Shikai said hitting the larger boy on his stomach.

"Yah and the scrawny little tooth pick here is so light I didn't even feel it!" Choza locked Shikai into a headlock and affectionately noogied her. Shikai retaliated with her fist in Chuzo's face, knocking him to the ground. "What's your name anyway?"

"Atsuko of the Hyuga clan: thank you for helping me." Atsuko said bowing respectfully!

"Hyuga?" Initially surprised Choza took a closer look at Atsuko. "Oh yah, you got those pretty eyes the Hyuga are known for."

Atsuko turned beat red at the compliment, none the less she remained composed as she continued.

"If there is a way that I can thank the two of you for your help here..." Atsuko asked before being interrupted.

"Squeeze us in tonight for a Hyuga dinner and we'll call it even!" Choza said brightly grinning.

"Okay!"

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><p>A few minuets later the three children arrived in the garden area of the Hyuga estate. Hinata was in the middle of having tea with a elderly looking toad dressed in a purple cloak.<p>

"It really has been too long Hinata. You should come to Mount Myoboku more often." The Toad said drinking from her tea cup.

"I haven't been there since Naruto took us there for our honey moon Shima. Who knows I might come for a visit again after Atsuko graduates from the academy." Hinata said drinking from her tea-cup as well.

"Mom!"

"Speaking of which." Hinata spotted her daughter walking around a corner with her new friends Choza and Shikai. "Over here honey!"

Hinata waved to her daughter. Spotting her Atsuko ran to her mother and gave her her a tight embrace around the waist which she returned.

"Hey honey! How was your day?"

"Uh. Fine! Like usual." Changing the subject away from her bully troubles she spotted Shima sitting in front of her and her mother. "Grandma Shima!"

Atsuko picked the toad up and gave a light hug, so as to avoid crushing the delicate creature.

"Hello Atsuko! It's been too long." Shima jumped to Atsuko's shoulder followed by her head. "You're getting so big! I can tell you're going to make a great ninja warrior one day. Perhaps even a sage on par with your father."

"Really!?" Atsuko asked trying to look up at the toad.

"Oh I hope so: we can always use another toad summoner down at Myoboku. Especially one so cute!" Emphasizing her point Shima reached down and pinched Atsuko on her cheeks, leaving the girl with a blush and a sore cheek. "I'll be back at Myoboku if Naruto needs my help."

Shima disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Chuzo confused.

"Shikai was that frog talking?" The openly gaping Choza asked.

"That was a toad, specifically a elder sage toad of Mount Myoboku. In all likelihood she's smarter then half the IQ's in the village combined mastery of the spoken word is comparatively simple." The smarter of the pair responded from on top of the first's shoulder's.

"Atsuko who are your new friends." Hinata asked with a look of curiosity?

"Shikai Nara." She said as she stuck her hand out to shake.

"Choza Akimichi." He said following suit.

"Oh you must be Choji's and Shikamaru's kids!" Hinata grabbed the pair's cheeks and gave them each a squeeze. "You two look so cute!"

The two children rubbed their sore cheeks, they had a sinking feeling this would be a long day.

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><p>A few minuets later the three children had sat down for dinner with Hinata.<p>

"Your father is running a little late tonight honey so we'll start eating without him. I had the chef prepare a few extra courses today, the Akimichi clan's appetite is legendary." Hinata said sitting down with the three children.

Choza gave a proud smirk, also extremely happy that he would be getting extra food at the table.

"You mean the part that none of them ever chew their food?" Shikai asked with a smirk. Choza shot his friend a glare, but Hinata only laughed in response.

"Exactly!"

Chuzo's mood lighten when he saw the food being left on the table, ramen with diced chopped naruto and steamed boiled lobster, at this point the four entered a praying stance, holding their clasped hands to their foreheads.

"We thank the Ten Tailed beast for this harvest, without whom we would have no world. We thank the Sage of Six paths, without whom we would have no life. And we thank our lord protector the Hokage, without whom we would have no future. Amen." The four said together.

With that out of the way they dug in. In spite of the fact that they were in the middle of enjoying a meal Atsuko noticed something odd about the relationship ship between the pair she had befriended.

"If I offend you by asking you don't have to answer: but why is it that you don't walk on your own Shikai?" Atsuko asked before popping some naruto.

"Because I'm paralyzed from the waist down." Was Shikai's slightly monotone response.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to..." Atsuko apologetically spat, nearly choking on her food.

"Don't be, the difference between you and me is as simple as eye color. Not once in my life have I been able to walk on my own, nor do I believe I ever will." Shikai said digging into the Ramen.

"Don't you want to be a ninja?" Atsuko poignantly asked as she recovered her breath?

"Did I say walk? No I think it was walk on my own. I come from interesting family Atsuko, and we have more than a few tricks up our sleeves." Was Shikai's foreboading response as she broke off a lobster claw.

The awkward moment was interrupted by the sound of a ringing doorbell.

"That would be my sweetheart now. I'll have more dishes brought out." Hinata got up to have the servants bring in more food.

Choza spotted the man walk into the house. He had a overly flamboyant black flame printed coat which he hung on a rack and Chuzo could make out whisker marks on his face.

"That must be your old man Atsuko."

Naruto spotted the dinner between his family and two children.

"And who are these two? Friends of yours Atsuko?" Naruto asked looking between the two unfamiliar children.

"Yah I just met them today!" Atsuko said as as she shyly scratched her head.

Naruto noted a touch of purple along his daughter's face, a bruise forming from where she had been punched in the face earlier that day.

"Always a good day when you make a new friend." Was Naruto's ominous response.

Hinata greeted her husband as she walked back in with a peck on his cheek.

"Good evening Honey: look at what I got!" Hinata revealed she was holding a dish similar to the ones on the table, featuring a combination of his favorite foods and side dishes.

"Ah your the best!" Naruto said returning the affection and with a kiss on Hinata's cheek the two adults joined the three children for supper.

Choza noticed something familiar about Naruto, looking out the window for a jolt to his memory he saw it, the Hokage monument, he compared the two several more times, there was no question, no denying it, absolutely no doubt about it.

"YOU'RE THE FOURTH HOKAGE!" Choza accusing pointed out.

A loud thud sounded throughout the room as Shikai's head hit the table groaning. There was no way on earth that he could honestly to god be that stupid.

"Sixth Hokage Choza. He's the Sixth and current Hokage."

Naruto had to give a good nature laugh at the pair's antics.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note**: Yes I am Continuing this story, on account of the one reviewer who actually bothered to tell me that they enjoy this story, and before I post the next chapter I hope to see more. So Read, Review and enjoy!

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><p>"Damn-it what could it be!?" Several hundred feet away from the village, a human formed dust-cloud had formed at speeds that would snap most men's necks like twigs. He had just finished a mission and was called back to the village by the Hokage himself via messenger hawk. Speeding through the front gate the two guards were left dizzy and spinning in place as the dust cloud rushed by.<p>

"What the heck was that!?" Both guards read the register they saw that a new name had signed in.

"Oh. He's back." The second guard said with a groan after checking the new name.

"That would explain it."

The dust cloud ran into the Hokage's office, skipping from floor to floor rather than running up the stairs he attempted to grind to a halt in front of the office door, over shooting his mark he crashed into the wall and leaped back a few feet, taking a knee in the doorway. He was wearing a bizarre ensemble from head to toe he was wearing a skin tight green uniform, he had orange leg warmers on, wore sandals, Konoha's red headband around his waist and was wearing Konoha's dark green flak jacket. He also had his dark black hair cut into a bowl style, and he had large wide eyes and thick eye brows. "Lord Hokage!"

Naruto turned around surprised to see his old friend Rock Lee.

"Lee?" The surprised Hokage asked, not expecting to see his old friend again for another few days.

"My apologies for coming so late sir...!" Lee shouted nose to the ground in a apologetic bow.

"Actually I expected you to be back three days from now." A somewhat puzzled Naruto stated for the record.

"As well as my failure during my last mission! In recompense I will slash open my gut..."

"LEE...!" Lee stood at attention and giving a salute at Naruto's outburst "I'm not mad at you. I asked you here because I wanted to ask a favor from you."

"Anything Lord Hokage!" Lee said dropping his hand and standing straight as a arrow.

"The other night during dinner I noticed that my daughter appeared to have been assaulted..." Naruto said walking around his desk.

"And you wish me to hunt down the perpetrators and mercilessly beat them into a pulp! SAY NO MORE LORD HOKAGE!" Lee said as he was immediately replaced by a Lee shaped dust cloud.

"LEE WAIT!" Naruto shouted already much too late to stop his hyperactive subordinate.

Lee had made a beeline for the front door only to be met with the mouth of a giant toad.

"WHAT THE...!?" Before he could stop Lee found himself trapped inside the mouth of the giant toad, a bored Naruto laying down on it's back.

"I'll let you out if you promise to let me finish talking before you bolt off again." Naruto stated, picking dirt from his fingernails.

Lee's arm popped out of the toad's mouth and did his best to give a salute.

"Spit him out." Naruto said, getting off of the toad.

The toad spat Lee out, shooting him across the room in the process. Naruto sent the toad back home while he was approaching Lee to talk to him.

"This incident has drawn to my attention that despite the fact that Atsuko is starting at the academy in a few weeks she is lacking in Jutsu related skills. In this case Taijutsu, so I'd thought I'd hire a tutor for her before school starts and seeing as how you're the best Taijutsu user in the village..." Naruto started as he attempted to help Lee up.

"Oh thank you lord Hokage! I will never forget this great honor!" Lee loudly shouted, hugged Naruto around his legs and crying into them in large exaggerated waterfalls.

"Ah Lee... you can bolt off now."

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><p>Early the next morning Naruto and Hinata had taken their daughter Atsuko to the training grounds, full of rows and rows of sparring dummies in the hundreds.<p>

"Where are we dad?" Atsuko said, wearing a cute little Gi.

"The Rock Dojo. A sparring ground for the honing of Taijutsu skills." Naruto responded, holding his daughter's hand.

"Founded by none other than Rock Lee!" Lee shouted, standing on top of the Dojo's sign, a look of supreme intensity on his face.

"With prized pupil Rock Kenta!" A young boy with identical features to Lee also shouted while standing next to the older individual, but dressed in a white Gi as well.

"Hello Lee. I don't think I've introduced you to my..." Naruto started, before he noticed that Atsuko had disappeared. "Hey where she'd go?"

Hinata found her daughter hiding behind her and her kimono, obviously scared off by Lee's look of determination.

"It's alright honey Lee won't hurt you." Hinata said crouching down to Atsuko's level.

Atsuko walked out from behind Hinata, though she was still nervous and was visibly blushing.

"Cut down on the serious looks guys your making her self conscious." Naruto jumped up to face the two ninja on the roof, whispering quietly into their ears.

"Sorry..." Lee tried a friendlier look this time but he still had the determination on his face "we'll start with a few warm ups. Kenta stretches please."

Kenta started doing arm stretches, trying to avoid looking directly at him Atsuko turned away from him and did her own stretches.

"Good now that is done we start with combat training. Follow my lead."

Lee walked up to one dummy and he punched it in one it's 'arms' followed by a kick to it's 'leg' and repeated it several times before Atsuko and Kenta joined in.

"Atsuko aren't you forgetting something?" Naruto asked, a cheeky look on his face.

"Oh yah thanks dad." Atsuko said formed a hand seal.

Suddenly large amounts of smoke billowed out from the dojo, the sounds of a army abusing the stuffing out of the dummies could be heard as Atsuko, Hinata and Naruto walked out of the dojo.

"Okay I got some work to do at the office so you take Atsuko school supply shopping." Naruto said to his wife.

"Have fun at the office dad!" Atsuko shouted to her father waving her hand goodbye.

"I will Honey." Naruto quoted waving in return.

Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke while Hinata and Atsuko left.

* * *

><p>"Okay we need pencils, erasers, paper, binders..." Hinata started, trailing of a list of school supplies.<p>

Atsuko looked around the supply store, she spotted a trio of adults. A blond haired woman wearing a teal kimono, a smoking man, and a overweight man eating potato chips. If she didn't know better she would say that they looked familiar, and soon learned why. Following close behind them were Shikai on Choza's shoulders along with a second boy, blond hair like the woman but pale skin indicating a lack of sunlight and dressed in dark purple clothing with bandaged arms and legs.

"You want to go hang out with your new friends don't you?" Hinata asked her daughter, a warm smile gracing her features.

Atsuko looked at her mother with visible surprise.

"Don't worry, I don't need your help for this. Go have fun." Hinata said, politely shooing off her daughter to go hang out with her friends, a request that Atsuko happily complied.

"Hi Shikai! Hi Choza!" Atsuko said, midway between her mother and her friends and waving them over.

The pair looked over to see Atsuko coming at them, and they weren't the only ones to notice.

"This must be Atsuko..." Ino, the blond haired woman, crouched down to Atsuko's level, shooting Choza a wicked grin "you didn't tell us how cute she is Choza!"

Now both Atsuko and Choza were embarrassed, blushing nervously.

"Real nice Ino, why don't the four of you go play while we finish school supply shopping?" The smoker said in a voice drained of enthusiasm.

"Sure!" Shikai stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Choza followed up.

"Ah... sure." Atsuko finished, her nervous shyness evident.

Atsuko, Shikai and Choza looked to the fourth and final of the children, he simply nodded in response.

"Then it's settled. Have fun kids." Ino said ruffling the fourth child's hair.

"Choza remember to be back by Lunch!" The overweight man shouted to the already fleeing children.

Ino and Shikamaru, the smoker, shot Choji, the overweight man, sly looks.

"What we're going shopping for cloths for them this afternoon aren't we?" The fat-man said shrugging his shoulders.

* * *

><p>The four had made their way to the park, Shikai had brought along training stars and three of the four had taken to throwing them. However the blond haired boy had taken to doodling on a sketch pad nearby.<p>

"Ah Shikai who is that?" Atsuko said pointing out the fourth child.

"That's Inoue. He doesn't talk." Shikai said retrieving her stars with Choza's help.

"At all?" Atsuko said incredulously!?

"Nada." Choza said, waving his hand in a cutting motion.

"What about sign language? Mutes use sign language?" Atsuko asked scratching her head with her free hand.

"You seem to misunderstand: I, and every doctor Inoue has ever seen, believe that he is perfectly capable of understanding and vocalizing the spoken word. The simple fact is he categorically refuses to speak." Shikai said riding Choza back to the playground.

Now Atsuko was confused. Not just curious confused either, as in head scratching confused.

"Why would someone do that?" Atsuko said putting her stars down on the bench.

"From what I've been able to understand Inoue is what's known as a Autistic mute, specifically Aspergers syndrome. This causes him to view things such as speaking as a useless and wasted endeavor." Shikai said, now once more throwing stars.

"Really? Doesn't that keep people from understanding him?" A now visibly concerned Atsuko asked.

"Few rarely do. He communicates only through a system of body language, established long before the existence of the spoken word it is grounded into the very DNA of human kind and near impossible to lie, absolutely no chance of misinterpretation. Additionally this provides him with a boost in combat, able to predict the enemies movement in advance and defeat them. Most of the time I envy him." Shikai said, a bit of sadness in her tone of voice and face.

"Most of the time?" Atsuko asked, a bit of her confusion cleared up.

"The draw back to this is that most people lack the ability to interpret what he is telling them. The frustration he feels must be substantial." Shikai stopped her star throwing to look over to Inoue. "If he can feel frustrated that is."

Atsuko's curiosity was peaked, she walked over to Inoue and sat down with him on the Jungle Gym.

"Ah... Inoue right?" Atsuko asked, her best friendly face on.

Suddenly Inoue looked up from his sketch book and towards her Atsuko. She immediately regretted getting his attention, while his eyes initially appeared to be lazy and relaxed something about them felt scathing, glaring, like he was studying every detail of her. The fact that his nose was now centimeters from hers didn't help in the least.

"SORRY!" Atsuko turned beet red, gave the customary bow, before she hid deeper inside the jungle Gym.

"You got a real way with the ladies there Inoue!" Choza shouted from across the play ground!

Inoue only rolled his eyes in response to Choza's sarcasm as he got back to work on his picture.

"Choza if you wouldn't mind?" Shikai asked pointing over to the jungle gym.

Choza slung Shikai over his shoulder and dropped her inside the jungle gym, soon meeting up with a violently shaking Atsuko.

"You alright Atsuko?" Shikai asked crawling over to Atsuko.

"S-s-scary!" The still shaking Atsuko nervously stated.

"Inoue has that effect on people. It's good when you want to clear a crowd in a hurry but it's yet another in a long list of reasons why me and Chozu are his only friends. You are not making him feel any better by running away from him!" Shikai polite scolded.

"Sorry!" Atsuko said bowing apologetically.

"Don't be, he doesn't seem to mind." Shikai said pointing behind Atsuko.

Suddenly Atsuko had the feeling she was being watched, turning around slowly she came face to face with with Inoue, literally centimeters from her face she turned beet red she screamed loudly before she slammed her head into Inoue's. Atsuko quickly crawled out of the jungle gym backwards, stopping only at Chozu's side and even then hyper ventilating. At the same time an unconscious Inoue slid out of the jungle gym via a slide, followed by Shikai via the same method.

"You're a real lady killer there Inoue." Choza shouted sarcastically, not caring that Inoue was unconscious nor that he wouldn't care if he was conscious.

Once Atsuko stopped hyper-ventilating she walked over to Inoue.

"Is he alright?" Atsuko asked, working up the courage to poke the boy with a stick.

Inoue awoke from his unconscious stupor and got to his feet, taking a moment to brush the dirt off of him, before looking at Atsuko again. Suddenly off in the distance a huge dust cloud was kicked into the air as Atsuko collapsed.

"Oh that isn't a good sign." Shikai said, stating the obvious with a small shake of her head.

* * *

><p>The three conscious children brought the still unconscious Atsuko to the hospital where she was in the middle of a check up by the familiar pink haired woman in a doctor's coat.<p>

"I told him that this method would leave her exhausted but did he listen to me? No!" The ranting Sakura said checking off various notes of importance on her clipboard.

"Uh excuse me..." Sakura turned to face the trio of Atsuko's friends, specifically Shikai who was the one speaking "can you tell us what you're talking about?"

Sakura rolled her eyes as she began to explain.

"Who here is familiar with the shadow clone technique?" Sakura asked with her hand on her hip.

"A technique originally invented by the second Hokage Tobirama Senju as a method of scouting by creating a physical copy of the user and then absorbing the knowledge the clone when it is dispersed, the sixth and current Hokage Naruto Usumaki applied the technique to great effectiveness in combat by creating a army of himself, although granted not a very effective one considering that all the clones he creates disperse with a single hit." Shikai explained proudly demonstrating her vast encyclopedic knowledge of Ninja techniques.

"As well as a training method, if you for example made one clone of your self and trained for the entire day then you would have amassed the experience of two days. If you like Atsuko made 200 clones and then trained all of them hard for the entire day it be like hard training for 6 months." Sakura said pointing out the young girl in question.

"It's only morning though, assuming that she started this morning that's more like 2 months" Shikai pointed out.

"And her Chakra is drained too, so she isn't doing anything else today." Sakura said readying some pills to aid in Atsuko's recovery.

Atsuko awoke with a tired yawn, looking around she saw everyone starring at her.

"Does anyone else know what happened?" An tired eyed Atsuko asked?

* * *

><p>If not for the sign being one of the few, if not the only thing, left intact you'd never know that the colossal pile of rubble sitting on the edge of town was all of what was left of the Rock dojo. Lee had already dug himself out of the wreckage and thus could now fully appreciate the damage done to his beloved family dojo, and simply stood there slack jawed.<p>

"Whoa what happened here." Naruto asked, and not getting any response Naruto slapped Lee in the face jolting him to consciousness.

"Who!? Wha!? How!?" Lee rapidly asked, having been shocked out of his daze, before setting his eyes on the dojo's remains.

"Lee what happened?" Naruto asked concern for his friend evident.

"They all blew up!" Was the exacerbated answer Lee gave the Hokage as he fell to his knees.

"Shadow Clones do do that Lee." Naruto pointed out patting his subordinate on the shoulder..

"They all flared red chakra, then they all blew up my dojo!" Lee cried out, pulling on his hair as realization fully set in.

"Ouch!" Naruto said with a grimace as he recoiled away, having a pretty good idea of what Lee was talking about.

"What the heck is going on with Atsuko anyway? That red chakra was just like the fox!" Lee asked, his brain finally kicking in on what was going on.

"Sigh, Look Lee it's complicated, and I can't really let the details get out. I understand it if you don't want to help anymore but I could really use your help with this." Naruto asked, knowing that he was asking too much of his old friend.

"Say no more Lord Hokage. But we'll need a change in venue." Lee explained, pointing to the wrecked dojo.

"I'll see what I can do." Naruto said, poofing as his clone was recalled.

"Only guy I know with a faster get away than me." Lee said sadly as he observed his wrecked Dojo. "Now where did Kenta go?" Lee pondered to himself, deciding that his best course of action was to dig through the rubble to find him.

* * *

><p>Contrary to popular belief Kenta was not in the dojo, he was stuck in a tree halfway into town. As to how he got there the last thing that he could recall was a series of dojo destroying explosions that hit him so hard that he must have fallen unconscious.<p>

"Hey." Kenta looked up, or down rather seeing as how he was upside down, to see the sight of Atsuko's group of friends, more accurately Shikai sitting on Choza's shoulder's. "How yah doing?"

"Oh fine just hanging around." Kenta mockingly replied.

"Need some help?" Shikai asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Hmm. Maybe a little." Kenta said, keeping his finger and thumb a hair's breath away from each other to emphasize his point.

With this, Shikai and Choza worked together to pull Kenta out of the tree, then dropped him on his feet to greet the others.

"Atsuko! What happened back there!?" Kenta asked, flailing his arms about in confusion.

"I can't remember." Atsuko sadly said.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Author's note_**: Sorry about posting late guys, it was hectic yesterday. Instead I offer this chapter, my thanks to the anonymous reviewers who actually read this story, and Bubbajack for all of his help.

* * *

><p>Lee had not repeated the same mistakes he had made with his first dojo. Before he had a relatively small enclosure, with a couple hundred relatively simple dummies to fight. He had moved the training grounds into a uninhabited section of forest, full of wide open spaces that would guarantee that no more buildings would be destroyed. He had a unlimited supply of wooden training dummies thanks to his connections.<p>

"Come on Atsuko! I'm just getting warmed up here!" Kenta said, standing on the ruins of a bolder he had just crushed by landing on it.

Kenta was dressed in a pair of black sweat pants, his chest left bare by a lack of shirt and glistening with sweat. His fore arms and lower legs were both covered with a set of bright orange warmers, blocky and sharp looking from tungston weights inside.

"Yah well I'm ice cold!" Atsuko shouted back from the remains of a tree she had just landed in, her fatigue betraying her confidence.

Atsuko was wearing matching black sweat pants, her t-shirt was yellow from sweat, and her arms and legs had the same tungston laced sleeves as Kenta. The two leaped through the air and attacked one another, their fight gave the impression of children slapping one another at arm's length, as they constantly blocked one another hits, both punches and kicks.

"It's almost amusing isn't it?" Naruto asked, entering Lee's safe house inside a cliffside room.

"That it is, have a seat." Lee said, pointing to the unoccupied chair while doing one handed pushups.

"Can't stay, I was just wondering how Atsuko was doing?" Naruto asked leaning in the doorway.

"Doing good, first person his age that can keep up with Kenta." Lee stated, a hint of pride in his voice for both of the mentioned parties.

"Nice, I'm gonna see if I can start her on Genjutsu tomorrow." Naruto said, over looking the battlefield below.

Atsuko had produced a 200 strong army of clones, one group had been sent to ground level and kicked Kenta into the air, a second larger group had jumped into the air and all attempted to hit Kenta at once. Instead Kenta grabbed the nearest Atsuko and threw her to the group below, the impact eliminating the first clone group. The other Atsuko clones quickly followed suit, until that is Kenta was ambushed from behind by the real Atsuko whom was holding him back from behind. This was followed up by the clones all hitting Kenta at once, sending him crashing into the ground. Hard to believe that mere week earlier Atsuko was a complete Taijutsu novice, but extensive use of the 'Uzumaki method' had multiplied her one week of training into almost four years worth. Pair that with fighting Kenta for hours on end and now she was beating him into the ground.

"And the teacher's pet has been dethroned." Naruto walked over to the balcony and looked down at Atsuko. "Hey Atsuko, after yah shower get back home yah hear!?"

"Okay!" Atsuko's barely audible voice shouted from across the canyon.

The 'showers' in question were a string of water falls on the far side of the training field. Doing pullups from a tree branch nearby was perhaps Atsuko's only female friend, Shikai.

"So what do you think of Kenta?" Shikai asked, a sleezy cheese ball grin on her face.

"He's a swell guy, probably the best fighter in the whole village!" Atsuko said, scrubbing shampoo out of her hair.

"Do you like him?" A still grinning Shikai asked rolling her eyes.

"Of course I like him why wouldn't I?" Atsuko asked applying soap.

"Like, like him?" Shikai said, her fingers tapping in anticipation of what was about to come.

"Eh?" Atsuko loudly shouted before staring incredulously at Shikai. "IF YOU TELL ANYONE!"

"So that's a yes then. Good to know." Shikai stated, returning to pull ups.

"Gah!" A frustrated Atsuko shouted grabbing her bath robe and exited the water fall.

* * *

><p>Later that day Naruto was meeting with another friend of his at Ichikaku Ramen, his favorite take out restaurant. On this particular occasion he was joined by another of his old friends, Shino.<p>

"Hey Shino, how yah doing buddy?" Naruto asked while slurping noodles.

"Fine. Got a new job as a teacher at the academy, which need I remind you, that you got me in the first place." Shino said pointing his chopsticks accusingly at his Hokage.

"True. But as a teacher, I was wondering if you'd be willing to tutor someone for me?" Naruto asked, picking up a piece of his namesake and inserting it into his mouth.

"Looking for another tutor? Did Lee finally get fed up with your daughter wrecking all of his stuff?" Shino asked slurping noodles of his own.

"Not quite, but given the fact that she and her clones managed to over power Kenta, I think her Taijutsu skills have been developed enough for the time being. So just to prevent her from becoming a knuckle headed brute like me, I thought I'd see about what other kinds of Jutsu we can arrange for." Naruto explained, popping a bit of his name sake into his mouth.

"That and Hinata's father would kill you if you did." Shino pointed out, biting off a bit of lobster claw.

"That he would. Well he would try but that's not the point. But with that new species of bug you and Shiro developed I figured..." Naruto started, hand motions indicating that he wanted Shiro to fill in the gaps.

"You want her to train with Shiro?" Shino asked, a tone that indicated he wasn't sure about what Naruto was getting at.

"Exactly!" Naruto said drinking from his glass.

"I'm sure he'll be honor, but no beating the crap out of one another. Unlike your daughter and that family of knuckle heads brawn isn't Shiro's strong suit." Shino said drinking from his own glass.

"Sounds easy enough to accomplish. To the new generation!" Naruto said proudly hoisting his drink into the air, with Shino tapping it with his own glass in a toast.

* * *

><p>While the two men drunk Atsuko had reunited with her friends at Choza's family's restaurant. The five friends were enjoying a celebratory meal of barbeque, with Shikai proposing her own toast.<p>

"To Atsuko! The new number one rookie of Konoha!" Shikai said with her glass in the air.

"To Atsuko!" The others, with the exception of Atsuko who was trying very hard to shrink into her seat and Inoue who remained mute as always, said clinking their glasses together.

"Guys I just beat Kenta, with like a army, vs. one guy!" Atsuko said loudly, trying to dissuade her friends from anymore unwanted praise.

"I shall avenge my defeat with brutality and swiftness!" Kenta said, tears streaming down his face as Shikai gave a sarcastic slow clap.

"Dare to dream Kenta, dare to dream." Shikai said, drinking from her glass of orange juice with a big smile on her face.

"So then, anyone know what they're going to do about the festival." Choza asked scarfing down beef.

Atsuko nearly choked on her orange juice, she had almost completely forgotten about the end of summer festival being held before school started again.

"I take it you have something you want to add Atsuko?" Shikai asked handing over a napkin.

"It's just that, I was hoping to see my brother for the festival." Atsuko said rather sadly.

"Another Hyuga? Isn't he that big scary guy that left town some time ago?" Choza asked as he bit down on some more pork.

Suddenly the room seemed to drop a few degrees, Atsuko seemed to shrink into a fearsome depression as she almost slumped under the table. Everyone, even the silent Inoue, scathingly turned their gazes on Choza, aware, unlike he, of taboo topics.

"Sorry, my bad." Choza said, cringing with realization.

Atsuko got up and left. Kenta looked at the rest of the group and observed that they had a mute, a cripple, and the cause of the problem in the first place. Naturally it was up to him to do the job.

"Quit gawking and go after her!" Shikai barked angrily!

Not one to argue with Shikai Kenta ran out of the restaurant after Atsuko, quickly finding her outside of the town's shrine, looking at one name in particular, Boruto Uzumaki.

"Knew you'd be here. Everyone and their dog knows that much." Kenta said, walking up to Atsuko from behind.

"Is that suppose to make me feel better?" Atsuko asked, still sulking.

"You're acting like he's dead." Kenta said, walking up to Atsuko's side.

"You're acting like you know better." Atsuko countered, not sure herself.

"My dad has a saying Atsuko. Until a point in time where the world does come to an end you should continue as if it intends to keep spinning. You shouldn't live your life expecting him to just show up one day out of the blue." Kenta tried to say reassuringly.

"If it's all the same with you Kenta, I would like to be alone for a while." Atsuko said solemnly.

* * *

><p>"Atsuko? Yah looking kind of down in the dumps there kiddo." Naruto asked his daughter over breakfast the next morning.<p>

"I visited brother again last night." Atsuko said having not yet touched her own meal.

"You're young Atsuko, you shouldn't burden yourself yourself with these thing's less they poison your soul." Hinata warned, waving her spoon at her daughter to show her disapproval.

"It's just that... he'd said that he'd be back the next day." Atsuko said, looking to be on the brink of tears.

"I know sweet heart, we miss him too." Hinata said in comfort to her daughter.

"In any case there's someone we'd like you to meet today." Naruto said as he went to the door, and opened it to reveal Shino standing with a young boy.

At least one would assume that it was a boy, he was wearing a dark poncho and had a bright red bandana covering his mouth as well as a set of aviator goggles around his eyes.

"Atsuko, I presume that you heard of Shiro yes?" Hinata asked, serving the role of introduction.

"Pleased to meet you, Lady Atsuko." The young boy named Shiro politely said.

It wasn't but a few minuets later that both of the children had been taken to the Rock training grounds.

"Are we fighting out here? I didn't bring my work out clothes today." Atsuko asked, scurrying after her father as they walked through the grass.

"I hope not." Shino answered in a dead panned tone of voice as he observed the damage done that morning.

"Don't worry Shino, this is more of a mental exercise than anything." Naruto explained as he led the two to a bench. "Now for this one you're gonna be learning the finer points of Genjutsu. Specifically how to counteract it. Now your Byakugan can already see through illusions, so what you need to do is figure out how to keep people from messing with your head."

"Okay? So how does he fit into this?" Atsuko asked, pointing to Shiro.

"Shiro here, being the little prodigy that he is, bred a new kind of insect called a Gendaichu that specializes in creating Illusions through Genjutsu. You will have to practice breaking out of this. I'll leave you to it then." Naruto explained, before suddenly running off.

"Should we begin?" Shino asked, not giving any air of emotion thanks in large part to his outfit.

"Ah sure. How does this work anyway?" Atsuko asked, a bit curious about this 'Miracle' insect that her father was going on about.

"This is a Gendaichu." Shiro said, a dragonfly like insect crawling out of his coat sleeve. "They use their wings to send chakra out in waves and enter your head through your ears and eyes and mess around in there." Shiro said, twirling his fingers around his head to emphasize his point.

"Wow! Scary!" Atsuko said backing away from Shiro.

"Not really, the best illusions are the ones that people don't want to end. That is what I try for. Now I would like you to begin using your Byakugan." Shiro said as more of the insects started to come out of his coat pockets.

"Why?" Atsuko asked as she tilted her head in curiosity.

"Your Byakugan allows you to see through illusions, although the same rule doesn't apply to your other senses as well. I'm hoping to breed a species of insects that can bypass that ability. To do that I've got to study it." Shiro explained as he squatted on the ground.

"Oh I know! It'll work faster for both of us if we use my shadow clones! That way I learn how to do this a lot faster and you'll figure out your bugs a lot quicker too!" Atsuko said as she banged her fist into her hand.

"That's not the best solution to this problem. Genjutsu disruption requires that you distort the flow of chakra through your body, making it harder to cast the illusions on you to the point that they simply cease altogether. If you're down to your minimal basic amount of chakra then you won't be able to alter the flow of it." Shiro explained, un-bothered by the dragonfly like insect sitting on his goggles.

"Okay then." With this Atsuko formed an hand symbol, suddenly the veins around her eyes began to throb as the pupils in her eyes popped, showing that the Byakugan was activated.

Atsuko's world view changed almost instantly, she could see for miles, not just what was in front of her but in almost three hundred sixty degrees around her and see through objects, more like radar than sight really.

"Okay, I'm starting the Genjutsu." Shiro said, not much change to him in the blue and white color scheme.

"Hello Atsuko." A hauntingly familiar voice echoed throughout the field.

"Boruto!?" Atsuko asked excitedly as she looked around the forest to try and locate the sound of the voice.

"It's not real, ignore it, focus on disrupting my illusions!" Shiro barked to deaf ears.

Atsuko scanned through the area using her Byakugan in search of her brother, ignoring Shiro's statement that the voice she was hearing wasn't real.

"Brother where are you!" Atsuko shouted into the woods.

"Clearly I've made a terrible mistake in my execution. Humanity." Shiro lamented to himself.

And thus Shiro commanded his insects to alter their illusion, and Atsuko's joy turned to terror. Atsuko suddenly spotted the appearance of a humanoid figure off in the distance, roughly Boruto's proportions but she couldn't make sure without the detail of more experience Byakugan. She skipped through the forest anyway, and when she was about halfway there the figure that she believed to be Boruto was suddenly violently shot down and his body dragged away.

"NO!" Atsuko yelled as she sped up in vain.

When Atsuko arrived at the clearing she was greeted by no one, the chill down her back enough to shake her entire body.

"ATSUKO! HELP ME!" The voice of Boruto screeched.

Atsuko followed the sound of her brother's voice and arrived in the clearing to see his body on the ground. When she finally deactivated her Byakugan to get the clear picture she saw, instead of her brother, a giant mass of insects shaped like a person lying on the ground, standing over them was Shiro who was only shaking his head in disappointment.

"Seeing as how being humane with you didn't work, I decided to be inhumane." Shiro calmly explained, not even flinching, from his vantage point of a rock.

Atsuko's despair soon turned into anger as red chakra started swirling around her.

* * *

><p>That day Atsuko had broken fifteen bones, none of which were hers. And that was the reason why Naruto was in the same room as Shino and a hospitalized Shiro, profusely apologizing to Shino regarding the current state of his son.<p>

"'Shouldn't be too much of a problem' eh?" Shino asked, glaring behind a set of sun-glasess.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over Atsuko Shino." Naruto said, more contemplative in thought than apologetic.

"Don't blame her." The two adults turned around to face Shiro, who was on the bed with a face covered in bandages from the pounding he took. "I deserved it. I created an illusion that toyed with her emotions to try and motivate her to break my Genjutsu. This was the end result."

"Playing around with people's emotions are not something to be done lightly young man." Naruto politely scolded, crossing his arms and frowning in disapproval.

"I can assure you Lord Hokage that is a mistake I will not repeat twice!" Shiro snapped back.

"What do you remember before you fell unconscious?" Shino asked approaching the bedside.

"Atsuko was giving off a lot of red chakra before she hit me." Shiro explained, before he raised his sleeve and revealed a small stone insect statue. "I believe that my insects protected me, as well as ate a large portion of her chakra that resulted in them turning into these."

Naruto took the insect in hand and examined it. It didn't look like the transformation of the toads of Myoboku, and although Naruto didn't know much about them he assumed the snakes of Ryuchi were something similar, turning into snakes instead he guessed, but rather than either of those these bugs just turned into stone on the spot.

"Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention young man. Your efforts to help my daughter are most appreciated, and if you ever touch her again I'll show you where that power she used on you came from." Naruto said, walking out of the room with the insect statue.

"Has he always been like this?" Shiro asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh no, he's really mellowed out in recent years." Shino replied, walking out of the room as well to allow Shiro some sleep.

Naruto's clone ran all the way back to his office at the Hokage building and poofed out of existence, reuniting with the actual Naruto. Having just received this important information Naruto bit the end of his thumb and did a summoning.

"Granny Shima..." Naruto said to the elder toad sage now sitting on his desk "I believe we need to have a word." Naruto said, picking up the insect statue.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's note**_: Hello there loyal readers, it fills me with such joy to learn that this story is starting to get a following of readers, I confess that I thought I made a mistake when I based it upon a obscure fan comic that was discontinued before it barely even started. In any case welcome to my parlor little flies as I present you with chapter 5. Beta'd by Bubbajack.

* * *

><p>Atsuko was scratching at her bandaged arm, it's been that way for weeks now, ever since her fight with Shiro. She could of course scratch her itch much easier if she had removed the bandages that bound her arm. However she hadn't, to the contrary the thought had never even crossed her mind, and even if it did she wouldn't. Right now though, it was really distracting her from her lesson. This was kind of inconvenient considering that it was one of her first lessons at the academy, and she had been looking forward to this for a long time.<p>

"Oi Atsuko." The itchy student in question looked over to her right and saw Shikai in the seat next to her. "Cut it out or Mr. Aburame will see you!"

"Indeed he will." The two students turned around to see Shino standing right in front of them. "Tell me, do either of you know the basic principal of chakra formation? Seeing as how Shikai has inherited her father's intelligence perhaps Atsuko would like to demonstrate if she's done the same?"

Shino had been demonstrative of a certain dislike for Atsuko since the beginning, no doubt for what she had done to his own son weeks earlier.

"Chakra is the end result of combining equal parts spiritual energy from the mind and physical energy present in every cell in the body. Furthermore, without exception, chakra is used in every Jutsu known to man, including Gen-Jutsu, Tai-Jutsu and Nin-Jutsu." Atsuko explained wincing, expecting a blow to her head at any moment.

"Very good Ms. Hyuuga. Shikai, would you care to explain Chakra nature and how each of the five elements correspond to one another?" Shino said, the only indication of who he was talking to being a slight turn of his head.

"Chakra nature is the five elements that Chakra takes the form of: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water. Similar to a game of rock paper scissors, each of the five elements are stronger or weaker than another for various reasons. Fire absorbs the oxygen in wind, Wind halts the flow of lightning with insulation, lightning breaks down the bonds of earth, earth absorbs water and water extinguishes flame." Once she was done explaining Shikai donned a coy smile. "Are you done yet or shall I get into the topic of Kekkei Genkai and all the glorious complications that involves?"

"No I'm good continue with what you were doing. But I do still expect you to pay attention." Shino said, not giving any indication to what he actually thought on the matter.

* * *

><p>Later that day at lunch, a trio of friends had been sitting together as they discussed the goings on of the village.<p>

"You guys hear about what Atsuko did to Shiro?" A boy with red fang marks on his face, and curiously enough, a brown dog sprawled out on his head asked.

"I heard he got the shit kicked out of him and deserved it." A girl with purple hair and a symbol resembling a hot-spring on her chest responded.

"Tarou, Takishi, I know that you both have crushes on my cousin, but I would kindly thank you not to talk about her like I'm not even here." The third friend, a young boy dressed in dark clothing with black circles under his eyes stated blatantly.

"Sorry Masaru." The boy with the dog on his head said apologetically.

"Don't worry Tarou." Masaru coughed into a Handkerchief before putting it away. "I'm more concerned about what Shiro did to her that caused such an reaction. Go find out, but avoid talking to Atsuko about it if you can." The dark haired student commanded.

"We're on it." Takishi followed up.

Although they tried neither of the two friends could find Shiro anywhere in the school, his insect spies gave him an unlimited set of eyes and ears, and it made moving around undetected very easy. By the time that school was out for the day it was like he had up and disappeared.

"Great, now what do we do?" Takishi asked scratching her head.

"Go to your dad's place and train?" Tarou asked, the dog on his head barking in agreement.

"Are you forgetting that your dad wanted to talk to you after school was out?" Takishi asked, cocking an brow.

"Oh yah thanks for reminding me!" Tarou said, suddenly stock still in a tone of voice that suggested that he really wasn't happy to be reminded about that.

* * *

><p>Naruto had taken Atsuko out to the training fields, apparently to show her some kind of new Jutsu that she had yet to learn.<p>

"So what kind of Jutsu am I learning today?" Atsuko asked looking around the field for some clue.

"You're gonna learn how to do collaborative Jutsu's today, and the first step to that end is to pick out a partner." Naruto said taking out a knife. "Your mother told me that you wanted to become a toad summoner, I think we can arrange that."

"Really! You mean it!?" Atsuko happily asked, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Yep, now before we do anything we need to do this all official like." To this end, Naruto bit the end of his thumb and slammed it into the ground, a poof of smoke later and a giant, slightly taller than Naruto, orange toad with black spots and a scroll in his mouth appeared.

"Hey Naruto, yah needed me for something?" The toad asked taking the scroll out of his mouth.

"We're making a summoning contract with my daughter today, so if you'd please Gama." The toad named Gama rolled out the scroll revealing a number of names written in blood with red hand prints, the most notable of which was Boruto's.

"You taught brother these techniques as well?" Atsuko asked, now suffering a series case of buzz-killed.

"Don't feel upset about it Atsuko. Think of this as being with him in spirit. Of course if you don't want to..." Naruto started to roll up the scroll again, only for Atsuko to stop him. "That's my girl!"

"So what do we do first?" Atsuko asked, some of the eagerness having returned to her features.

"We need to write a contract of blood, Gama here has that covered already, then sign it with your name and your hand-print in your own blood." Naruto said as he brandished the knife. "Would you like to use your left hand or your right?"

Atsuko held out her left arm to Naruto. He was very careful to cut his daughter's arm to avoid all of her arteries, but bleed out enough that she'd cover her entire hand in blood. Atsuko stamped her hand in empty circle on the contract and then signed her her name below it, afterwards Naruto threw her a cloth to press against her wound.

"Congratulations you're now a Toad Summoner, after your wound heals up we can start summoning toads." Naruto said, pride beaming from his features.

While Naruto went over the basics of toad summoning with Atsuko another pair were doing similar training just a little distance away.

"Hey Momo what's your read on those two?" Tarou asked, as he used his dog sat on top of his head to try to spy on the pair.

The pair were interrupted by the sudden blow that they received to the backs of their heads, not strong enough to do any real damage, but still very painful.

"I thought I brought you two out here to train you, not so that you can spy on the Hyuga girl!" An older man scolded cracking his knuckles.

"Eh leave the boy alone Kiba..." the man in question turned around to spot his partner, a large elderly dog "you were young once too."

"Traitor. If you weren't a old man Akumaru I'd kick your ass right here and now!" Kiba growled as he crossed his arms.

Kiba was wearing a fur lined grey coat, his clan's signature red fang marks were on his face and had grown a long goatee.

"If I'm an old man then what does that make you Kiba?" Akumaru asked with an amused tone of voice.

"I liked you better when you didn't talk." Kiba commented in a harsh tone of voice, before turning back to face his son. "If you two want to go screw around with the Hyuga girl then I suggest you grow some balls and get your asses down there!" Kiba said, as he delivered a powerful kick to Tarou's posterior sending him flying.

"Oi Kiba, just because you're mad at your son don't take it out on my little girl would yah!?" Akumaru growled still having not got up.

"And yet you don't honestly care one bit do you?" Kiba questioned as he turned to face his partner.

Meanwhile down below Atsuko's arm wound had just finished healing.

"Now you may begin summoning toads." Naruto instructed.

Atsuko bit down on her thumb until it started to bleed. Just when she was about to do her first summon she was interrupted by Tarou and Momo landing on her, a big poof of smoke going into the air when her hand hit the ground.

"Ow!" Atsuko groaned from underneath the unexpected visitors.

"Sorry for dropping in unannounced lord Hokage, lady Hyuga." Tarou apologized.

"Let me guess, Kiba brought you two out here to train, yah pissed him off, so he kicked yah across the field. As a result here you are." Naruto guessed looking highly amused at the situation.

"Pretty much sir." Tarou admitted guiltily.

Suddenly, Atsuko started screaming and pushed the two off of her before she grabbed something on the ground and ran off. Out of concern the three went after Atsuko and tracked her back to a river where she was now breathing a sigh of relief.

"Atsuko, what's wrong?" Naruto asked clearly concerned about his daughter.

"Nothing now, it's just that I didn't summon a toad." Atsuko said, calmed but disappointed.

Naruto walked over to his daughter and looked down into the river to see a newly released tadpole having taken up residence. Now understanding that the source of Atsuko's panic attack was to get the poor little thing into the water before it drowned on land. At this Naruto had a good hearty laugh.

"Don't worry about it Atsuko, you just didn't put enough chakra into it. The Bigger the thing you're trying to summon the more chakra yah gotta put into it." Naruto explained as he gave a reassuring pat on his daughter's back.

"That makes since." Atsuko commented, observing her hand was still bleeding. Deciding to give it another shot Atsuko slammed her hand into the ground again resulting in another poof of smoke. "Did it work?"

"Hey what happened!?" A very confused toad that had suddenly appeared at Atsuko's feet asked.

The toad wasn't unusual, for a toad, but she was very small, big enough to fit into both of Atsuko's hands when she held them together. She was also had mix of bright green skin with orange spots and wore what could only be described as a toad kimono.

"Oh you're so cute!" Atsuko said picking up the toad.

"Right back at cha. But on to more important matters..." Suddenly the toad stuck out her tongue with piercing on it, and on that a sharp piece of metal, stopping just before Atsuko's throat. "You have ten seconds to tell me who you are!"

"Easy now little toad, we all friends here!" Naruto said as he aimed the tongue away from his daughter.

"Lord Hokage!?" The toad slurped up her tongue in shock before bowing apologetically. "My apologies milord, this was my first summoning and I had no idea what kind of situation I was in!"

"It's alright, misunderstandings happen all the time, I remember that my first toad spent all day trying to kill me when I first summoned him!" Naruto explained as he fondly reminisced about his old partner. "In any case, I was just teaching my daughter here about toad summoning. Seeing as how we were successful as the first toad that she's summoned we were wondering if you'd like to take the position?"

"Gamamiki at your service, lord Hokage!" The toad said bowing, after popping back into place her nearly popped out eyes.

"Now that we've established that we should probably work on your synchronization skills." Naruto said, waving his finger in the air and clearly enjoying playing the role of the mentor a little too much.

"Synchronization?" Atsuko asked tilting her head in confusion.

"Oh I'm going to regret this." Gamamiki said with concern in her voice.

* * *

><p>"Yes I hear the froggy song! Yes I hear the Froggy song!" Both Atsuko and Gamamiki sang, badly and drained of enthusiasm, as they wandered the streets of Konoha.<p>

Naruto explained that part of the benefit of having a partnership like this is that one could reliably summon your partner pretty much anywhere they wanted was the use of combination attacks. Attacks that usually used a combination of Chakra Natures to to produce a more powerful attack. This require perfect synchronization between partners for the most ideal effect. The most effective method of synchronization would be for the toad to consume their summoner whole and then spit them out. Naturally Gamamiki's small size made this impossible, so instead they had to go with the second most effective method, 'the Froggy Song.' In a nut shell when the two reached the point where they could sing the song in perfect harmony then they will have had achieved perfect synchronization. Now granted neither of the two understood the reasoning behind such a choice in song, nor did they know the point of wandering through Konoha's market district while they did so.

"Shikai, is that...?" Choza asked staring down the street jaw dropped at Atsuko.

"Atsuko singing a children's song while a toad is sitting on her head? Yes, yes she is." Shikai responded, also jaw dropped from the vantage point of Choza's shoulders.

Suddenly a acorn was thrown from the pair's right and nailed both prospective ninja and frog on their heads.

"Ow!" Atsuko, rubbing her sore head, looked over at the direction the projectile came from and glared at her suspects. "What was that for!?" Atsuko asked accusingly as she looked at Shkai and Choza.

Shikai and Choza looked down at their right to see Inoue, innocently sketching on his sketch pad.

"We were wondering if we were having a hallucination. Seeing as how that's a toad on your head singing something that we can only guess to be called 'the Froggy Song.'" Was Shikai's honest answer, ignoring Inoue's antics.

"You could have just asked, 'hey Atsuko over here' Would have done very nicely!" Atsuko politely scolded, her hands cupped over her mouth to emphasize the shouting point.

"So what's with the frog anyway?" Choza asked scratching his head.

"TOAD!" The three girls all shouted in unison.

"And to answer your question we're doing important summoning training assigned to me by my father, your Hokage no less!" Atsuko hissed pointing to Choza.

"Which involves humiliating yourselves in the streets of the city?" Shikai asked, smirking coyly. "Hey Choza, if anyone ever offers to teach us how to summon animals, remind me to politely turn them down."

"A little common courtesy too much to ask for?" Choza mockingly asked, a big grin on his face.

"Of course, after all we'd never be caught dead singing 'the Froggy Song!'" Shikai responded, eying the two would be partners coyly.

Suddenly a large tongue erupted from Gamamiki's mouth with her weaponized piercing dripping with saliva.

"One more smart aleck response outta you two and I'll cut yah both to ribbons!" The little frog somehow, growled with her tongue stuck out.

"A poison dart toad, named so because of their strict diet consisting entirely of poisonous mushrooms and poisonous insects giving them a severely poisonous saliva. Skin contact should be avoided, entering the blood stream, say with your little toy, can be lethal." Shikai said, not batting an eye at the sharp poisonous piece of metal in her face.

"What!? Gamamiki don't hurt them! Do you know what dad will do to us if we hurt them!?" Atsuko screamed, flailing her arms about in a panic attack.

"Does she do this a lot?" The toad asked slurping up her tongue.

"Aha." Both of the friends replied in unison.

"Why are you guys so calm about this, she was threatening to kill you!?" Atsuko pointed out, still flailing about.

"That's easy..." Choza started, shrugging his shoulders as if it were obvious.

"It's precisely the reaction we were looking for..." Shikai continued for Choza.

"No way are we gonna let our friend get a lousy partner that wouldn't even stand up for her!" Both said together.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Review section<strong>_:

Guest: Thank you for saying so. And to answer your question that is still something I'm debating, if I just rip off the move from the anime that will just look unoriginal.

Bankai777: I appreciate your dedication, but posting four reviews at one time is just overkill. But to answer your question without crossing into the dangerous territory that is spoiler land: Atsuko does not need Chakra chains, which are for subdoing a tailed beast, as she does not have a tailed beast but tail beast Chakra. As soon as I know what Rasenringu is I'll let you know. Yes, soon if I'm not mistaken.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note**_: Sorry for the delay, but I'm sick.

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><p>Late nights scribbling away on paper, a bold faced lie. Everyone knew that with the Hokage's shadow clone army any paper work that would take one man years to complete would be finished in days. No the real reason for spending so many long nights alone in his office was the slim chance of the man standing in the window finally showing up. He was wearing a white cloak over Konoha's flack jacket, as well as a attention grabbing white fox mask with orange markings.<p>

"Hello there, lord Hokage." The man in the window frame greeted cheerfully.

"Hello there, Ichigo, or is it Uryru you're calling yourself these days?" Naruto asked, sitting at his desk, not facing the man who apparently has many names."I do hope you don't intend to show your ugly face here without bringing me some good news?"

"Do I ever not?" A folder was thrown onto the Hokage's desk by the masked man. "Another base belonging to our 'friends' has been located towards the east. Perhaps if you don't blow it this time we might actually get something out of it for once."

"It was neither me nor my people who were responsible for that fiasco need I remind you." Naruto spat distastefully in response.

"Yah, yah. So how's Atsuko doing anyway? I hear the village is calling her the number one Rookie as of late." The man in the mask asked.

"Considering that you're someone who has absolutely no right to know anything about her. Atsuko's had a few near misses already. It was close but she doesn't remember anything, and we may even have a way of stopping her when it does happen again." Naruto explained, examining a insect statue in his hands.

"That's good, because you should know that if you do let anything happen to her, I'll kill you myself!" The man warned, turning around and exposing a singular, pupiless bluish white eye to the Hokage.

"I'd like to see you try boy!" Naruto challenge, still not showing any visible signs of concern.

With that out of the way the masked man jumped out of the window, prompting Naruto to go for the phone at the end of his office.

"Hello, I need a our fastest messenger hawk, as well as your top encryption officer, immediately." Naruto barked into the phone, before abruptly hanging up.

Naruto rushed over to his desk. He wouldn't even trust Shikamaru with this information. So he needed to be deliberately vague, just enough so that Sasuke would understand what he was talking about: He's Back.

* * *

><p>Atsuko had just finished brushing her hair and ran out of her home for school, she observed that Masaru was already waiting for her outside.<p>

"Gahh! Masaru! You shouldn't be out! What if you get sick again!?" Atsuko asked in her usual panicking manner.

"This bloody disease isn't going to kill me any faster just because I go to school Atsuko," Masaru said, coughing into his elbow once he was done growling. "Now are you going to have another panic attack or are we going to get our butts in gear!?"

Atsuko opted for the latter option, walking behind Masaru just in case he did end up collapsing again she would know it immediately and would be prepared. The two met their friends out in the courtyard, Masaru opted to go meet up with Tarou, and Atsuko made sure he got there without falling over. She herself met with her own pack of friends, Shikai, Choza, Inoue and Kenta.

"So what is wrong with Masaru any way?" Shikai asked concerned over her friend's cousin.

"He has a degenerative disease I think, I don't know everything about it but he's terminal. He really shouldn't be up and around like this." Atsuko said, the last portion in a hushed whisper.

"Huh. That sucks, seems like such a nice guy: we oughta treat him to dinner sometime." Choza said scratching his his head.

"You want me to introduce you?" Atsuko asked looking back over to her ill Cousin.

* * *

><p>Masaru was never one for such large crowds, all the talking gave him a headache, but these little "support groups" that Atsuko puts together makes her feel happier about his condition. He by all means has no intention of dying anytime soon, but at the same Atsuko was making a bigger deal out of it then it should be.<p>

"So Masaru, Atsuko tells us you're a pretty good Ninja." Choza stated, wrestling with a piece of beef in his mouth.

"It stems from my chakra, Uchiha has quality, Uzumaki has quantity: I've inherited both." Masaru explained, using a more practical knife and fork to cut through his food.

"That sounds impressive. Makes yah wonder why you're sick at all." Shikai questioned, receiving a kick from Atsuko to her numb knee as a result.

"That might be it, I have so much chakra in my system that it can't handle it. I do feel better, although more tired, after my training exercises." Masaru pondered while dipped his meet filled fork into some barbecue sauce.

"Masaru why didn't you tell anybody about this? I would help you train any day of the week!" Atsuko declared, waving her fork at Masaru in disapproval.

"Because then you'd have another panic attack over the fact that I train with giant poisonous snakes." Masaru explained eating the morsel he had prepared, prompting Atsuko to drop her utensil's in sheer shock.

"You've been training with snakes!?" Atsuko said, loud enough to let the other patrons know, although they didn't seem to care.

"A little louder I don't think the hidden cloud village heard you." Masaru calmly responded while he slurped noodles. "Besides what are you complaining about, you've been training with a poisonous toad?"

"That's not the point!" Atsuko responded getting up and slamming her hands palms down on the table.

"Atsuko, I think that's your whole point." Shikai responded slurping her noodles as well.

"I've been training with one toad! That's big enough to ride around on my head! He said snake-ssss as in plural, multiple!" Atsuko shouted, flailing her arms about in frustration.

"It's not that bad. Masaru how big are the snakes you've been training with?" Shikai responded, patting Atsuko down.

"Anywhere from small enough to fit up my sleeve to big enough to crush this entire town." Masaru responded, straight face and without flinching.

"Oh... and how many have you been training with?" Shikai asked, thrown a little off guard.

"It's hard to keep count even with my Sharingan, the ones I could name I can count on hand, the ones I've been fighting I doubt I could count if I had all the fingers in Konoha." Masaru said, still straight faced, leading to Atsuko to faint and land on Shikai. "Oh look at that Atsuko's fainted, I guess I have to take her to the hospital." Masaru picked Atsuko up by her arm and slung her around his shoulder. "Thanks for the meal guys, catch yahs later." Masaru said as he walked out the front door.

* * *

><p>The Gendaichu, a specially bred species of parasitic insect with the ability to trigger wild unpredictable hallucinations, unsuspecting prey of Momo, the ninja dog of Tarou. She would be careful, keeping up a guard of fluctuating chakra that would break any Genjutsu the insect would produce. She would be smart, stalking the target from the tall grass of uncut lawn for her perfect opportunity to strike. She would be swift, catching the prey before it could react, and brutal, finishing it off with savage strength before it could counter with it's Genjutsu. She would be praised, having captured the prey that had eluded her master on so many occasions. She would be all of these things, had she a brain to think ahead. Instead Tarou watched as his dog ran around in circles chasing after a hallucination, the Gendaichu long gone.<p>

"It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic." Takishi said, barely able to contain her laughter from a park bench, sitting next to Tarou.

"Then why are you laughing!?" Tarou barked, a bit annoyed that the trio had once again been outwitted by a bug.

"I'm not laughing!" Takishi said, her hand over her mouth doing a poor job of hiding her big smile at Momo's and Tarou's expense.

"Oi you wanna get Masaru pissed off at us again cause we got beat by a bug!?" Tarou barked, smiling in grim satisfaction at finally having managed to ruin Takishi's mood.

"Alright Spoiled sport, how do you propose we catch the thing, all your brilliant ideas are chasing her own tail over there!?" Takishi barked, pointing out the dog that moments earlier had been the source of such amusement for her.

"Why do I have to come up with all the ideas!? You're part of this miserable bug catching team too! Honestly if Masaru wasn't a goner already I would just screw off and get close to Atsuko the old fashion way." Tarou angrily barked, unaware of who was standing behind him.

"I'm sorry Tarou." Suddenly the dog lover became very scared. Slowly turning around to face Masaru standing directly behind him. "I didn't quite hear that, considering that I'm buried six feet underground and all, what was that you were saying?" Masaru stated, cupping his hand around his ear as if it would help him hear better.

"Ah nothing Masaru! Nothing at all! Hey did I mention that you're looking excellent today!?" Tarou stated in a panic, nearly falling off of his seat getting away from Masaru.

The new arrival spotted the dog chasing her own tail, and with expert skill and precision threw at blunted practice star directly at her head knocking her out.

"MOMO!" Tarou shouted, rushing to the dog's side and crying waterfalls at the unconscious dog who was otherwise alright.

"I take it that you still haven't found Shiro yet?" Masaru asked turning his attention to Takishi.

"He's a slippery one I'll give him that much." Takishi lamented, crossing her arms in thought.

"Here's a thought: go to his house and confront him there!" Masaru growled pointing across town.

"If you're so brilliant then why don't you do it yourself!" Tarou barked scratching Momo's ears, receiving a cutting glare from Masaru in response. "Sir!" Tarou added in fear.

"I have more important things to do." Masrau adjusted Atsuko's position into something he'd thought would be slightly more comfortable. "So you two, do what I tell yah to while I look after our mutual friend here!" Masaru walked off still carrying Atsuko, leaving Takishi to smile coyly at Tarou.

"Already a Goner eh!?" Takishi said, returning to her stifled giggles.

* * *

><p>There are a lot of things that Naruto would like to be doing today, spending time with his beauty of a wife Hinata, quality time with his adorable little girl Atsuko, even listening to the village elders drone on and on would be better than this, at least they occasionally say something intelligent. Still he wasn't doing any of them now.<p>

"Have you thought about what you're going to do for the up coming fire festival yet? Maybe something with that pet fox of yours?" The Fire Damiyo asked, being escorted into the room by a pair of Anbu and his female assistant.

The Damiyo was a lanky middle aged man, his bright blue hair a stark contrast to his fiery red kimono with yellow accents.

"_I'm no one's pet! If he wants a trained monkey he can go ask Goku!_" Kurama barked from within Naruto's consciousness.

"Kurama has politely declined your proposition." Naruto explained as he left the pot of tea on the table in the meeting room.

"Who?" The confused Damiyo asked as he accepted the tea that Naruto was handing him.

"The fox." Naruto answered, his face that of a man who was seriously pondering how stupid a man could be.

"Oh right him. Any way my family is going to be tagging along as well, I was hoping for some protection detail." The Damiyo said sipping the tea. "There have been some whisperings of something unpleasant being planned against my family."

"I'll have our best Anbu look into it." Naruto said, visibly relieved at the Damiyo having finally said something intelligent.

"Anbu?" The once more confused Damiyo asked, leading to his assistant to lean down into his ear and whisper an explanation. "Oh that will do very nicely!" The suddenly even cheerier than before Damiyo said returning to the task of his tea.

"_Is this guy seriously the leader of the Fire Nation!?_" Kurama asked in disbelief.

"If there's anything else you would like to discuss Sir?" Naruto said, having reached his limit of how much of the Damiyo he could handle and was now working on backing out.

"You still need to do something for the fire festival, maybe those frogs will be able to help?" The Damiyo asked poring another cup of tea.

"They're toads, sir." Naruto said with a groan.

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><p>Reviews:<p>

Guest: Spoilers.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note**_: My apologies for the long delay, but I lost track of time easily.

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><p>Hours of early morning preparations, shopping, tailors, make up, hair dressers all leading up to this. She was wearing three layers of clothing, starting with her unmentionables, for obvious reasons. On top of them she had a red skirt, black leg tights, white lilly high-heels and a black sleeveless shirt. Finally there was a white kimono and paired with a black sash, simple and elegant and a red lilly in her hair to tie the outfit together. Make up was relatively light, just a little bit here to make it easier for the camera to catch her face and complimentary red blush on her cheeks. After three hours of preparations she was finally done, she'd breath a sigh of relief but alas the sash was tied too tightly. With the annoying portion of the day over with Atsuko could move on with her life.<p>

"Atsuko, are you ready yet?" Masunu asked, standing in the doorway of Atsuko's room.

Contrary to Atsuko who's makeup failed to hide just how frazzled she was Masunu managed to project an all encompassing feeling of calm. He was wearing a black formal military uniform, with bits of dark red armor plating here and there, complete with the wooden sword in his sash gave the general impression of a samurai bodyguard. Atsuko got the distinctive feeling that his dress up process was significantly faster on account of his apparent lack of patience with her and his paradoxical feeling of calm he projected.

"Masunu how long ago did it take before you finished getting dressed?" Atsuko asked failing to hide her suspicious tone of voice.

"Two hours ago, unlike you I can sit still." Masunu stated blandly before walking down the hall. "I'm also not waiting for you any longer."

"WAIT!" Atsuko screeched as she madly dashed for the door, catching up to Masunu and only not tripping down the stairs by the miracle that was his vastly superior reflexes.

"Watch where you're going!" Masunu demonstrated his vastly superior strength by grabbing Atsuko by her arm, picking her up a few inches off the ground and straightening out her posture, tightly locking his arm around hers to keep her that way. "This is the reason why you women have a escort to these events, because you have to wear those shoes even when you can't."

"An escort!? But your my cousin!" A blushing Atsuko shouted, flailing her remaining arm and throwing the pair off balance as they walked.

"Stop doing that or you'll slag us both!" Masunu growled pulling Atsuko back to him as they finally reached the floor.

"Sorry." Atsuko said before being escorted outside to meet the pair's friends.

On Atsuko's end we have Inoue and Choza in matching black tie formal wear. Choza's a bit bigger to accommodate his mass, with Shikai was wearing a red kimono but was using crutches and leg braces, hidden by the kimono, to stand up. Tarou and interestingly enough Shiro were both wearing suits as well, the main difference being Shiro's sun glasses and Momo who was given a bow for the occasion. Takishi on the other hand was wearing a purple kimono, the hot spring logo on her back now.

"Hey Atsuko, why are yah holding your cousin's arm like that?" Choza asked pointing to the interlocked elbows.

"Because this happens if she doesn't," Masunu said, letting go of Atsuko leading her to fall over, saved from falling on her face by Masunu's lightning reflexes. "Thank you for making my point Atsuko."

"Now I know how you feel Shikai, I can't walked and I have to be carried everywhere!" Atsuko complained while her face was being suspended from the ground by the neck of her kimono being held Masunu.

"Hey guys!" Kenta shouted, walking up to the group in his own suit. "Did I miss anything?"

"Ah good the guy you have a crush on is here, so why don't you go and lean on him for a bit?" Masunu asked pulling Atsuko up onto her feet.

"Wha!? I don't have a-GYAH!" Atsuko said before being interrupted by Masunu throwing her on top of Kenta, leading to an episode of mutual blushing between the two.

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><p>The ancient temple of the Jinchuriki, sacred training ground created by the original sage of the six paths himself to teach the original Jinchuriki how to commune with his greatest creations the Tailed Beasts. This was a excellent recreation, a place of mutual meeting between the nine Jinchuriki all seated around a wooden round table. In the order of the most tails to least we have Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha, host of the nine tails Kurama, a man who by now required no introductions.<p>

"As head of the council of Jinchuriki, I call this meeting into session." Naruto said, raising a glass of peach colored liquid into the air in a toast.

Secondly there was the eight tails Gyuki Jinchuriki, Killer B of Kumogakure. Easily the oldest of those present and whose very casual black house robe exposed his vast amount of dark skin a stark contrast to his bleach blond hair.

"Bottoms up yo!" Killer B stated hoisting his glass in the air.

Thirdly there was the seven tails Chomei Jinchuriki, Maka Kamizuru of Iwagakure, a woman with white skin and who was wearing a silk red kimono while she smoke something sweet smelling from a pipe.

"Glad to see you all again!" Maka stated, taking out her stick to toast the glass.

Fourthly there was the six tails Saiken Jinchuriki, Karen Terumi of Kirigakure, blond hair and bright green eyes complimented by a blue kimono and cheery demeanor.

"Hi everyone!" Karen piped out in her toast.

Fifthly there was the five tails Kokuro Jinchuriki, Yura of Sunagakure, whose face was wrapped in bandages and body in ragged clothing leaving only dark black hair exposed.

"Hello." Yura blandly stated holding his glass in the air.

Sixthly there was the four tails Son Goku Jinchuriki, Tripikata of Iwagakure, a dark skinned man with a shave head adorned with four piercings and was wearing orange Shaolin-esque monk robes.

"Greetings." Tripikata calmly said in a meditative lotus position.

Seventh there was the three tails Isoba Jinchuriki, Rin Tsubasa of Kirigakure, easily the youngest of the gathered Jinchuriki she was wearing a green kimono but had her face hidden in a mask and goggles, exposing sandy blonde hair.

"Hello everyone!" Rin greeted enthusiastically waving her free hand in the air.

Eighth was the two tails Matatabi Jinchuriki, simply known as R of Kumogakure, a lithe looking young woman with blue hair, dark skin and mismatched yellow and blue eyes.

"Hello." R said respectfully, holding her glass at waist level.

Finally there was the one tail Shukaku Jinchuriki, Gaara of the sands, dressed in the green on white robes of the Kazekage.

"Hello." Gaara said politely, bowing his head slightly.

"Now that we got that out of the way what the heck did you want to talk to us about Naruto?" Yura asked in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Yura don't be rude! This place is sacred!" Tripikata politely scolded from a few seats down.

"This place is a figment of our imagination!" Yura growled back, snapping his fingers and making a vase of flowers suddenly appear on the table just to prove his point.

"Sorry for my partner here." A large paw appeared next to Yura as his tailed beast the massive six tailed pale dear like creature known as Kokuro appeared. "He has a mouth like a toilet when he hasn't had his coffee."

"Then he should learn how to flush more often." The form of a massive four tailed cross between a monkey and a gorilla known as Son Goku appeared behind Tripikata. "Otherwise we'll have to come over there to teach him a lesson!"

Suddenly a volley of fireworks appeared separating the two, drawing the pair's attention back to Naruto.

"Gentlemen, please if we could get back on topic here?" Naruto asked, his fingers raise for another demonstration of the power of imagination.

"Our apologies Hokage, if you need me for anything let me know." The gorilla hybrid apologized before retreating beyond the shadows.

"The same for me." Kokuro said before returning to the shadows as well.

"I called this meeting, on account of the fact that new information has surfaced concerning our old friends." Naruto threw the information on the table in the form of a folder, allowing each of the present Jinchuriki to read their own copies. "My subordinate Fox as you know has spent several years hunting down information on these people."

"Fox again? Are we talking about the same guy here?" Karen asked before taking a swig of the imaginary liquid. Just to confirm her suspicions, a image of the Fox mask wearing member of Anbu that Naruto was talking about appeared.

"Hasn't he cried wolf enough for one life time already?" Rin asked pretending to read the information inside the files.

"I'll admit that he has been wrong before, as he has been right before. Even with the increasing frequency that his information has proven to be outdated, they have occasionally revealed something of importance." Tripikata pointed out, poring some tea for himself.

"After what happened last time he's lucky we don't take his head and put it on a stick!" Yura growled angrily shaking his fist.

"Cool yah jets Fool ya Fool! Ain't his fault that they know we coming! They got sensors like everyone else in the world!" B pointed out to the assembled group.

"Getting off topic. The base appears to be located within the borders of the Land of Tea, we should assemble a small strike team to enter the base." Naruto explained sipping the peach liquid.

"The last time we sent someone after one of your man's hunches we got screwed! We should just blow the whole place to heck and get it over with!" Yura growled, putting his feet on the table to demonstrate his displeasure at the situation.

"Feet down Yura, less you try my patience!" Tripikata politely scolded.

"Gentlemen, back to the topic at hand..." Naruto reminded the group, rifling through his folder again.

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><p>"Wow! So Cool!" Atsuko said in awe.<p>

The annual Fire Festival, along with the other hidden village's respective, Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning festivals are designed to celebrate each of the village's respective history. Leading the parade was a marching band of sorts. Consisting of seven people using the disguise Jutsu to mimic the appearance of the Seven Hokage, with the exception the current Hokage Naruto Uzumaki of course, who was leading the band.

They had been positioned around a large float. Carrying the fire Damiyo's family consisting of himself, a black haired woman who was the Damiyo's wife, and his two children, both bright blue haired like their father. Following them there was a group consisting of the Village's most famous families, the group of children could see their parents in the parade, most notably Atsuko's Mother Hinata Hyuga and Masunu's father Sasuke Uchiha leading them. Behind them a large puppet constructed in a joint effort between Sunagakure and Konoha made in the likeness of Kurama, the Damiyo of course would have preferred the real thing, but according to Naruto the fox was mysteriously unavailable when the subject came up. Following them was Gamabunta, Toad Chief of Mount Myobuki, symbolizing the village's close alliance with the toads.

"Must have taken them a while to put this all together." Masunu said, noting another addition to the parade that wasn't in view of the public.

The Anbu were following the Parade closely, they were focusing around the Damiyo's parade float, following closely but from a distance. Only a fool keeps his bodyguards out in the open. Granted the Damiyo was indeed a fool, but luckily the Hokage wasn't. The Hokage himself and probably half a dozen Anbu disguised as the pass Hokage were less than ten feet away from him and his family, if Masunu were a guessing man. But even more were following from the rooftops, expertly staying out of sight while the mobile song and dance show keep all eyes forward. If someone did try anything, it'd get messy, quickly.

"Hey guys!" Masunu was pulled from his thoughts by Choza's needlessly loud voice. "They got fried octopus over here!"

The children crowded around the stall, thanks to Atsuko's ample supply of coin the vendor was all too happy to meet the demand. A few moments later the group were sitting at the curb watching a demonstration of a fire chakra show eating the octopus.

"Hey Masunu can you pull stuff like that off?" Choza asked looking over to Masunu.

"Probably, I have fire chakra." Masunu said before he popped a octo-ball.

"Yah I noticed that you aren't coughing as much as you were the other night." Shikai said suspiciously as she rubbed her sore legs.

"I got these..." Masunu said shaking a pill bottle "suppose to take them with food. Some concoction that Sakura and my father came up with. Something about bone and muscle density."

"Are they helping?" Atsuko asked, curiosity and concern replacing joy.

"Don't know, I get a new concoction every week. Some help, some hurt, most of the time it's a little of both." Masunu explained popping more of his meal and some of the pills.

"Great! After you get better I can take yah out training!" Kenta proudly proclaimed, flexing one of his muscles.

"I train with snakes, I don't need to train with idiots." Masunu blatantly replied finishing off his octopus.

Kenta, for good reason, took great offense to that. He threw a punch at Masunu's face and for his troubles, was judo thrown across the village, followed up by being hit by a fire spear created by Masunu and thrown even farther.

"Ugh. Harsh." Shikai recoiled, shivers going down her spine.

"KENTA!" Atsuko said running after her escort, and falling flat on her face as a result.

"He'll be fine as long as he lands on his head," Masunu said as he got up, stretched his legs, and picked Atsuko up by the scruff of her Kimono only to realize that she had fainted. "And that's all I need."

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><p>The uniforms were special ops black, patches of grey on top of the blackness of night, fully padded with impact absorbing snake leather, as much in common with chain mail as with leather. Underneath was plate armor, enough to stop dead any projectile that wasn't chakra enhanced. The headbands were leftovers of the fourth Shinobi war, allied forces headbands but with the allied symbol appropriately scratched out, showcasing their lack of loyalty to any village, or trying to hide one. What the Anbu hadn't been prepared for was a chakra infused poison mist. It much more difficult to dispel than Genjutsu, and making things very difficult for the Anbu who were currently firm believers that they were stone statues. Looking down on the streets below the group confirmed their target was in sight.<p>

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><p><em><strong>Reviews:<strong>_

Guest: I'm trying, I really am.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Notes**_: Hello my people, I hope this will become a trend of me actually posting these on the date that I intended to, and I thank however many of you read this story on a regular basis for your patience and hope you will continue to read it.

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><p>Small weapon storage scrolls, used to store weapons for later use as the name would imply. Laugh at the concept if you will, these tiny things usually no bigger than a can of soda can hold enough weapons to stage a war. In this case, they were being used to store high powered explosives, shells welded together from bits of metal and stuffed full of explosive tags, effective magazines for their arm mounted shield like contraption designed to summon and fire the shells at incredibly high speeds. The group took aim at the parade floats, a good distraction for their real objective. Using a bit of lightning chakra to power up their contraption they began firing.<p>

The blasts immediately flipped over a parade float that was covered in flowers, first there was shock going through the crowd like a wave, once that was done there was panic, running and screaming in the streets, perfect opportunity. The explosion was loud enough for the Anbu to have heard, they'll be running here any moment.

"There they are! Get them!" One of the Anbu shouted pointing out the group.

Announcing your intent, amateur hour. No matter, several smoke bombs were thrown containing the poisoned mist, the Anbu were wise enough to hide re breathers in their masks, but this was the kind of poison that you absorb through the skin. True little of the Anbu's skin was exposed to the air, with the exception of the neck, which gave the fast acting poison a direct route to the brain.

"Poison gas! Stand back!" The Anbu yelled prompting a retreat.

More amateur hour, if they had to be told to stay away from the mysterious gas then they were barely qualified to be ninja let alone Anbu. Those few who weren't caught in the smoke retreated immediately, switching to the use of ranged weapons. What they hadn't counted on was the dense chakra gas being manipulated to stop the knives in midair. The group's leader looked through his telescope and saw that their target was already gone. He silently signaled his group to fan out, intent on locating their target before she could get away.

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><p>The explosion rocked them at first, stunning them like everyone else. Next thing they knew everyone was running, panicking, some people were trampled already. Their group was already at a disadvantage with two of them already unable to run two feet without falling on their faces. Fortunately though they had a pair of summoners with them. Masunu acted first, slamming his palm down to summon a white snake with a singular black spot on his head. It reached all the way to the roof of a nearby building, and soon proved strong enough to pull the entire group onto the roof.<p>

"Thanks Yang, I'll call you if I need you again." Masunu said to the snake wrapped around his out stretched arm.

"Any time Boss~s." The snake replied before she disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Can I get these things off of me now!?" Atsuko screeched as she ripped her shoes off.

"Scream a little louder I don't think they heard you Atsuko." Masunu warned looking down at the streets.

"Isn't that the idea? I mean won't the rescue party be able to find us faster that way?" Atsuko asked as she threw her accursed footwear off the side of the roof.

"It would also make the people who are after you easier to find you as well." Masunu stated as he pulled out a map of the village.

"After me?" Atsuko asked, recoiling in fear. "What about the Damiyo, I mean he's way more important than me right?"

"Daughter of the Hokage, Next heir of the Hyuga, Byakugan and that's just you. We're all the kids of famous Konoha Ninja and Masunu's got the Sharingan." Shikai explained as she listed off her reasons on her finger tips.

"Translation, even if they are here for the Damiyo, any one of us could be worth a lot of money on the black market. They find us, they might just take us! What we need to do is get to somewhere they won't be able to get to us!" Masunu explained as he rolled out the map and pointed to the Village's center, the Hokage office. "And here's where we're gonna go!

"The Hokage Office, easily one of the most heavily fortified buildings short of the emergency bunker in the Hokage Monument," Shikai noted, getting back to her feet as they were. "And a Heck of a lot closer."

The group made a pit-stop inside the building, an apartment building of some sort with unwashed clothing, in addition to being easier to move in them it made them look less like the children of such distinguished family's and more like regular kids, much less noticeable, with Atsuko being given a set of sun glasses to hide her eyes. Once on ground level the group were taking advantage of Atsuko's Byakugan to look out for trouble.

"All clear." Atsuko nervously said from around a corner

"Say that with more confidence and I'll believe you." Masunu said, using his own Sharingan to check for movement nearby.

"I said we're all clear!" Atsuko said after checking again.

"Better." Masunu said turning to the rest of the group and waving them over.

The Group did their best to stay out sight, sticking to closed alleyways and darkened corners as they slowly made their way to the town center. Time would be short, let there be no doubt about that, everywhere they went the Anbu were losing against the invaders and their poison mist.

"Hey Shikai, you got any idea what that stuff that they're using is?" Choza asked looking at the poison cloud.

"Some kind of chakra based poison that messes around with your head, makes yah think parts of yah body are turning to stone or something to that effect." Shikai explained scratching her chin in thought.

"In other words, don't breath it in!" Masunu barked from the shadows.

The group was being watched from above by one of the invaders, whom was contacted on his radio by his superiors.

"Update 223." The operative's radio crackled.

"I've spotted a group of children skulking about in the streets, should I grab them?" #223 asked looking down at the group of children.

"Is the girl amongst them?" The radio asked.

"No."

"Then ignore them."

With that the operative bolted off for parts unknown, leaving the group of children to their own devices.

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><p>While the rest of the village had been left to it's own devices, the Damiyo and his family had been swiftly and as efficiently as possible carried off to the Emergency bunker. There the various people were finding ways to occupy their time. The adults consisting of the Damiyo and his wife were drinking, as adults usually do in times of crisis, while the children had found other methods. The older of the two, a Young man with Blue hair, appeared to be practicing his calligraphy, while the younger of the two, a equally blue haired girl about nine or ten years old, was using a millstone to polish a katanna.<p>

"Why are you wasting your time with that thing Tsume?" The older of the two asked as his pen swished back and forth.

"If someone breaks in here at least mom will have something to fend them off! You're the only one wasting time here Tsetsuna!" The younger of the two snapped back.

"If someone does come in here, it'll be their corpse dragged before us by the Hokage," Tsetsuna stated calmly but harshly.

The siblings had become rather famous in the land of Fire, the scandal of the Fire Damiyo marrying a Samurai of the Land of Iron, no matter how highly ranked, was rancorous. As a result a rather infamous nickname of Madame De Fer, the Lady of Iron in some foreign language they couldn't name at the moment, was coined. Tsume, being a hardcore enthusiast of her mother's culture, often gave the impression of a child playing at being an adult, especially when she made her way into her mothers samurai gear. Tsetsuna on the other hand was a refined aristocrat to his core. The next heir to the position of the fire Damiyo and a excellent player of the game that was politics of the land of Shinobi. Initially giving off the impression of being lazy, he was in fact a meticulous planner and a man of great patience. First he would set a plan into motion then he would wait patiently for it to come into action, as his foes are ruthlessly slaughtered. He has a certain talent of striking fear of the Fire Nation into it's foes.

"My those two seem to be having fun!" Madame De Fer commented rather amused.

"Indeed, although the festival turned out to be a bit more exciting than we had anticipated." The Damiyo said sipping his drink.

Suddenly a crash was heard from outside the room. Looking through the slot in the door, Tsume saw a large yellow ethereal arm toss a man across the hallway, snapping his neck as his head hit the floor. Naruto walked into view, his body cloaked in a, ethereal yellow glow of his nine tails cloak, and looked directly at Tsume.

"Go back inside Tsume." Suddenly another of the invaders tried to jump Naruto from behind, resulting in Naruto spinning around backwards and cutting him in half. "I got this covered." Naruto said in a tone that one might use to comment upon the weather.

A bit disturbed, Tsume turned around, closed the slot, and sat down as she got back to work on the blade. Even though she was normally this uptight and responsible girl, she would never admit to her brother that he was right.

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><p>After a long time spent wandering around the city, the children finally arrived at the Hokage office. The group of children began making their way to the most secure room in the office, the elders meeting room located in the heart of the building. Masunu checked the deadlocks on all the doors, while Atsuko used the Byakugan to check for any secret ways in, or out.<p>

"All clear." Masunu stated walking to the center of the room.

"Me too!" Atsuko added joining her cousin, but keeping the Byakugan active.

Now that the pair were done the group began to relax a little, but they would still have to be ready for any un-welcomed visitors. Shikai was working on a puppet that she had summoned into the room, a large six armed thing that looked like giant beetle.

"Hey Shikai, what do you call that one again?" Choza asked, taking out a bag of chips from the counter.

"I don't have a fancy name for it right now Choza, so I just call it Shield instead. Hey can you pass me my screw driver?" Shikai asked with her hand out expectantly.

Choza handed Shkai a bright red screw driver, prompting her to dive under the puppet. Masunu took note of the fact that Atsuko was looking a bit depressed, especially since she was curled into Fetal position. Observing Kenta noticing the same thing he pushed him over to her.

"Sometimes I wonder how the species survives."

Kenta turned to face Masunu to glare daggers at him, before he focused his attention on Atsuko.

"Uh, hey Atsuko. You look a little depressed." Kenta awkwardly asked while scratching his head.

"Why would somebody attack the Hidden leaf Village? It doesn't make any sense!" Atsuko cried, almost in tears.

"Hey don't worry, everything will be alright. Your dad's gonna beat all of those bad guys invading the village and everything's gonna go back to normal cause he's the Hokage!" Kenta said comfortingly patting Atsuko on her back.

"You think?"

"I know. The real question is what kind of card game are we gonna play while we wait for everything to go back to normal."

Kenta noted that his words of encouragement were working with Atsuko's features brightening up a bit. Unknown to the group their conversation was being listened in on by one of the enemy ninja through the use of a hidden camera.

"Sir I believe I have confirmation on the Hokage's daughter." The operative reported into his Walkie Talkie.

"Confirm, if the girl is from the main branch of the Hyuga, she should lack markings on her forehead."

"Confirmed. The Girl has the Byakugan, there are no markings on the forehead, but there is whisker marks on the cheeks."

"Confirmed that is the Hokage's daughter, observe and report."

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><p><strong><em>Reviews<em>**:

Guest: I always try.

helrio uzugaku: Something I should consider, need to do research. But that's part of his personality, he has a sort of buddy cop relationship with Naruto but dislikes the Damiyo and being thought of as a pet.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note**_: Hello peeps, not much to say today other than stay tuned.

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><p>A man, hidden in the shadows of his darkened room, was carefully examining a folder lit only by candle light and depicting only the most recent surveillance photo of Atsuko. The room was briefly illuminated a bit more when the man's assistant entered the carrying a new folder. Opening the new folder, it featured a close up of Atsuko's bandaged arm.<p>

"So the Hokage is still attempting to stifle our experiment? It was for the best at the time, such a young child could never handle the power of our research." The first man stated, examining the folder of photos.

"On the other hand if she becomes too old before we begin the experiment then she won't be able to adapt to the power output."

"No time like the present, as they say." The assistant grabbed a nearby phone and passed it over to his superior. "Operative 226: kill the girl."

"Understood."

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><p>The sound of a weapon cocking echoed through the area as a magazine-scroll was loaded into the launching shield. This was an extraordinary variety of ammunition, Tungsten Carbide shells, an ideal balance of hardness and weight, perfect for armor piercing ammunition and through the use of some copper wire and lightning chakra infusion excellent electromagnets. Their cores on the other hand consisted of an explosive commonly known as C4, infused with chakra for extra punch. The weapon itself had some custom modifications as well, a barrel composed of a series of magnified rings in a row, ideal for hyper accelerating the ammunition speed to terminal velocity. At least those were the observations that Shino made while he sat on the unconscious body of the same man whom he relieved this very weapon from. Finishing his examination Shino activated his communicator to report in.<p>

"Shikamaru I have some information. I picked off a sniper that had set up shop out on Ichiraku's roof."

"Oi, Naruto isn't going to be happy about that. Aside from it being his favorite haunt, it gives a clear line of sight to the Hokage Monument."

"Some serious firepower too. If I were a guessing man, I'd say that it was designed to punch a hole through some awfully tough material and a lot of it."

"Like the bunker. Disperse your insects around the area and have them report back immediately when they find someone with one of these weapons."

"Understood."

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><p>One moment the group of children minded their own business with a game of cards, the next thing you know the whole building was shaking. Atsuko summoned Gamamiki and sent her to scout the air-vents, a few minutes later she returned with some bad news.<p>

"Someone is trying very hard to get into this building. There's a guy outside firing high explosives at the door with a weird looking contraption."

"Then we need to get out of here. Anyone got any earth chakra?" Masunu asked looking around the group.

The Sounds of explosions echoed through the village as the group invaded the Hokage office via repeated use of explosive devices. After much time and effort the group, led by one of the invaders with an explosive launcher, breached the council room only instead of a panel of children they discovered a large hole dug in the ground.

"We've lost them."

"Now I find myself wondering just who you fools are talking about?" The group turned around to face Shino, having been investigating the explosions at the Hokage office. "Everyone knows that the council hasn't been here all day and all night. Though someone has clearly been here already." Shino stated observing the hole in the ground.

While Shino was distracted, one of the invaders threw one of their gas grenades at Shino enveloping him in purple paralyzing smoke, leaving Shino frozen in place with his Chin in his hand.

"We need to go. The experiment is getting away."

"This entrance has been sealed, we need to figure out where they went. Get our censors out to find her."

The group left through the hole they made, once Shino made sure that they couldn't see or hear him Shino dropped the ruse of being paralyzed and contacted Shikamaru again.

"Shikamaru I've had a close call with some of the invaders at the Hokage office."

"Are you unharmed?"

"They tried using the mist on me, my insects had already synthesized an antidote. I planted some of my trackers on them as they walked by me."

"Good call. At the least we'll track them back to their base of operations. At the most back to their employers."

"Good call, I'll update the Hokage. Do you have any information about what the invaders want?"

"They were investigating the council chambers, in search of a 'her' to be precise, and something about an experiment. But the only thing here is a large filled in the hole." Shino looked over to a set of shelves and observed a Gendaichu amongst the books. "Also make note that Shiro, or more accurately one of his Gendaichu, were also here."

"Shiro was with Choza, Shikai, Atsuko, Masunu, Takishi, Inoue, Kenta, Tauro and his mutt Momo at the time of the attack. Of them, 'Her' can refer to Shikai, Atsuko, Takishi, and Momo. Atsuko is most likely the highest priority target, Shikai a potential secondary objective, Takishi, and Momo are probably non-priority." Shikamaru stated musing his thoughts aloud. "I will contact Kiba to locate the missing children, you will find the invaders and disable them."

"Understood."

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><p>One of the citizens of Konoha, very ordinary by all standards, and currently in the middle of using the bathroom while he read the newspaper, clearly oblivious to the events going on in the village. That changed soon as a mechanical wooden contraption with a drill for a head and a long centipede-like body crawled out from a patch of earth nearby, making the man suddenly very grateful that he was already on a toilet. Once somewhere, a little more private the children each exited out from a different segment of the contraption, ending with Shikai storing her creation in her scroll.<p>

"Nice save Shikai. Tarou aside from cold and wet how's Momo's nose?" Masunu asked brushing the dirt off of himself. The dog in question barked happily before she jumped off of Tarou's head and began sniffing around. "We need to up our sensory game. You two are up front, anyone gets close you nail them: hard."

"Might I suggest putting you in the back Masunu? Your eye might catch what Tarou's nose misses. Atsuko can you go in the middle? Your clones might make some good support units. Kenta can you back her up? Might need it too. Choza, you and me in the second slot. Shino can you stay in front of Masunu? Pairing your Genjutsu together can help keep us out of a lot of trouble. And Takishi, think you can lead us to your dad's dojo? If barriers don't work then, we might wanna try muscle. Inoue I know you don't have any special Jutsu's or skills but..."

Inoue held his hand up to stop Shikai from talking, before jumping up to the rooftops intending to scout ahead.

"Works for me!"

Choza said picking Shikai up and placed her on his shoulders. The group moved into the formation that Shikai laid out, moving single file quickly through the streets under the cover of Shiro's genjutsu barrier. Masunu spent half the trip running backward, using his Sharingan to cover the rear as best as he could. Noticing something he didn't like, he had the group divert their path several times, trying to dodge their potential pursuers. When he saw the group was still following them, he signaled the others to stop.

"You can come out now!"

A group of Anbu jumped down from the rooftops and landed on the ground.

"Lady Atsuko. We've come to take you to safety."

"Thank you! We've been running around all night avoiding those guys. Thank the Ten Tails you've come!"

While Atsuko was incredibly grateful, not everyone seemed convinced. Masunu gave Shikai and Tarou suspicious glances and he caught them giving him the same looks. Preparations would take a minute, here's hoping that they had that long.

"If you'd all follow us?"

Tarou, Masunu, and the Shikai Choza pair all moved into a defensive triangle while the others moved in a more sparse pattern, unaware of the suspicions of the others, as they all followed the Anbu. The Anbu led the group deeper into the alleyways, a darker corner before the struck. At the first sign of the one closest the Atsuko drawing his blade, the Anbu found themselves in the stranglehold of their own shadows.

"A word of advice for whatever life comes after this one. The next time you guys attack a party with a member of the Nara Clan, don't attack from the shadows!" With Shikai's solemn advice, several cracks echoed from the alleyway as the men were all killed.

"What the heck was that about!?" Shikai held up the head of the Anbu, his mask resembling Chinese lion statue. "I know every Anbu under my father's employ, this mask belongs to one named Lion he's approximately 5 ft 8 this man is 5 ft 6..." Just to prove her point she removed the man's mask, revealing am man wearing one of the invader's headbands. "If you need more substantial evidence I believe Tarou has something more robust."

"Me and Momo have been smelling something weird all night. Poison of some sort. These mooks are choking on the stuff."

"At least we know that they're after one of us now right?" Takishi stated hopefully.

"We need to be more careful. They singled out Atsuko, I'm not inclined to let them have her are you lot?" Shikai stated, resting her head on her hand.

Whispers went among the children before they smiled and turned to Atsuko, Masunu speaking for them.

"Don't worry about it Atsuko: they won't lay a finger on you long as we're around!"

Good speech, unfortunately they were interrupted by one of the explosive shells, striking directly at the center of the group, right where Atsuko was standing. The entire group was deafened and blinded, especially Masunu with his extra sensitive eyes. Atsuko got the worst of it her body a broken heap on the ground, red fur exposed. The invader who fired the shot clicked his weapon as his motion detector found movement. Deciding that it was best not to take any chances and fired another shot. An arm covered in red fur reached out and snatched the shell out of the air.

"Let me make something clear: I have absolutely no idea what any of this is about..." Suddenly, the shell exploded, having been crush in her hand. Blowing away the dust and smoke to reveal Atsuko covered in a yellow bubbly cloak, grinning madly "and I stopped caring about five seconds ago."

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><p>"Naruto." The Hokage turned around to face Shikamaru, who had just walked up from behind him. "Shino overheard a conversation regarding our unwelcome guests. They appeared to be after Atsuko and made mention of an experiment as well. Like the one done to your daughter when she was born.<p>

"All the years chasing after them, and they knock our door down!" Naruto got a good laugh out of that, the bitter irony having hit him in the face. "Get some detail..."

"Naruto..." Naruto suddenly found himself inside himself, standing before his partner Kurama the Nine-tails. "Can you feel that?"

"Nine Tails chakra, mixed with Senjutsu. Just not ours, which means that someone set Atsuko off again."

"It's more than that, there's intent, thought behind it. But alien to Atsuko."

"Which means she's conscious but not in control of her own actions." Naruto returned to the world of the conscious. He immediately made his way outside of the Bunker, he could see a yellow light radiating from within the village. "Shikamaru, it seems that my daughter needs me, can you look after things here?"

"It would be my pleasure, Lord Hokage."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's note**_: Sorry for the delay, the chapters were mixed up a little.

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><p>The Alleyway was filled with the sound of groaning and moaning, they were understandably sore from just being hit with a explosive shell. At least that was what Shikai thought based on what she remembered before falling unconscious. But a quick examination of her self revealed that although she had suffered injuries one would expect to receive from taking a shell at close range they were mostly healed, and looking around the alleyway she observed that it was the same for everyone else as well.<p>

"What the hell just happened." Since this clearly wasn't a recovery room and hopefully not the after life the most logical explanation was that as she could remember the explosion had only just happened and someone used a powerful healing Jutsu on them. "Oh ow my head! Everyone alright?

Everyone got up, battered and bruised but in regards to Shikai's question they were alright. Everyone that is but the absent Atsuko.

"Where's Atsuko!? Tarou track her down."

In response to Masunu's order Tarou and Momo began sniffing through the air.

"Cherry shampoo... rosemary detergent... and fried octopus! Atsuko is that way!" Tarou said, only now realizing that what he was pointing to was a series of buildings all with holes torn through them. "Oh Shitaki!"

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><p>A block away from the children a group of invaders were futilely fighting against a monster that they had unleashed.<p>

"The Nine-Tails is acti-ACK!" the invader's cry for help into his communicator was interrupted by a hand through his chest.

"**Nine-Tails eh?**" Atsuko picked up the invader's communicator and discarded his corpse from her other hand. "**Hello there whoever your are. Now I get the feeling that you're the ones that are responsible for what's going on with me right now. If that's the case thanks for the upgrade I really appreciate it. Now if you think I'm going to give it back to you well...**" Atsuko crushed the communicator in her hand. "**_I'd like to see you try!_**"

"Atsuko!" The deranged little girl in question spun around to face her father the Hokage.

"**Ah father I was just wrapping up here.**" Atsuko walked over to one of the moaning body's of the invaders, grabbed his head, and snapped it.

"Atsuko, you're sick you need to get help!"

"**Odd I don't feel sick?**"

"That's because you're high let me help you!"

"**HMM!? Nah.**"

Atsuko plunged her hand and into the ground and ripped out a chunk of concrete and threw it at her father like some over-sized frisbee. Suddenly, much to the confusion and relief of Naruto, the large slab of stone was pinned down to the ground by a oversize blade, most notably with a missing half circle at the base. Naruto also made note of two additional weapons that nearly scrapped him on the nose, a long Katana, double serrated so to do damage going in and out, secondly a pair of sai, oddly enough connected via a razor wire, all holster into some kind of circular contraption on Naruto's savior's back.

"And where have you been!?"

"Around." Fox stated, clicking the weapon into the circular contraption via the half circle.

"Now would you like to fill me in on what's going on or should I just use my imagination and assume that you've screwed up again?" Fox was interrupted by Atsuko grabbing him and running off.

"I'm going to have to go with, no."

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><p>The two individuals crashed through a wall as they landed inside a decent sized apartment.<p>

"**Come on now, don't tell me you're down after something like that are yah?**"

Suddenly Atsuko was hit in her face by a palm thrust which managed to throw her out a window. Atsuko landed in the street surrounded by a group of confused invaders.

"It's the target! Kill her!"

Suddenly all of the invaders had holes punched through various vitals such as the chests and heads. Under normal circumstances the Hyuga clan's infamous Gentle fist technique is a fighting style surgically inserts foreign chakra into the targets chakra circulatory system. For this reasons different organs were damaged depending upon that depend upon those specific nodes of chakra. In Atsuko's current state, all concept of precision was gone, with the natural energy infused nine-tails chakra replacing normal chakra her attacks had been amplified several hundred times, now every hit was a blast of raw destruction.

"Damn! I'm starting to root for her!" Fox jumped down to ground level, drawing the duel sai on his back. "Alright kid. Calm down now and we can get go and get your marbles straightened out."

"**Hmm?**" Atsuko rest her chin on her fist as if she was seriously pondering the offer. "**Nah.**" With this Atsuko returned to the pattern of a berserker rampage.

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><p>The group of children were making use of Yang and her black skinned with white dot brother Yin to drag them up the side of a rather tall Sky scraper. They didn't need much confirmation about Atsuko's location, but the higher vantage point and ability to move uninterrupted would make getting to her much easier.<p>

"That's a lot of ominous chakra she's giving off right now." Shikai commented observing shots of bright red going into the air in roughly the same area that Atsuko would be.

"We should avoid getting close until we can figure out what kind of state she's in." Masunu added standing with Shikai.

The two brains of the group were interrupted with the sudden appearance of Inoue, who had jumped down from above to join the group.

"Inoue, have you been able to scout the area yet?" Inoue nodded his head he pointed over to a building, obviously meaning for the group to check it out.

The group followed Inoue into a cramped room that the group barely fit into.

"Inoue, why have you brought us here!?" Masunu asked impatiently, looking around as if he were looking for the answer to his question.

Inoue locked the door and snapped the key. Before the rest of the group could react Inoue had knocked out Shiro and released one of the Invader's poisonous gas grenades into the room. While the rest of the group were being taken hold of by the gas Inoue used the last few moments of flexibility to transfer his mind into a tied up invader in the next apartment over. He had a plan in place to help deal with Atsuko, but it prefers that his friends wouldn't be caught in the crossfire if it did go south. With the preparations complete, Inoue began making his way outside, he observed Atsuko's battle spewing out a huge concentration of the bizarre dark red chakra, it might as well been a flare with the way that it gave away Atsuko's position, which it should be noted served Inoue's purposes perfectly as he began making his way over.

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><p>"So much for rooting for her!"<p>

Atsuko had Fox on the run. Thanks to her dense chakra cloak Atsuko was effectively invulnerable, with any attempt on her wounding Fox instead. His best hope would be to cut off the chakra path's leading from her transformed arm to the rest of her body, as that should logically be the source of the altered chakra. Since he wasn't going to be penetrating that dense layer of chakra any time soon his best hope would be to wear it down first. From what information he could gather his best option in penetrating the cloak would be Chakra eating Kidaichu, which he unfortunately did not possess. Making matters worst Fox spotted the invaders gathering together on the roof tops surrounding them.

"Attention all units..." the invaders removed their communicators to talk with their superiors. "Return to our grouping point immediately!"

"Understood. What of the girl?"

"Abort!"

"Understood. Returning to grouping." Thus as suddenly as they had arrived the invaders began to leave, content to let their experiment proceed with out them.

All but one that is. Suddenly, one of the invaders dropped down in between Fox and Atsuko. Initially on guard Fox recognized the eyes of the man, the eyes of the Yamanaka clan, this man was possessed.

"**Another one? Do you guys have a death wish or something!?**"

As if he were using it to aimed at Atsuko Inoue, still in the invader's body, formed a sight with his hands, Atsuko, ignorant to the technique, rushed at him. Fortunately the mind swap technique was completed freeing the invader from Inoue's control and placing Atsuko under his control instead. The invader's freedom was very brief as fox knocked him out with a single blow to the back of his head. Inoue, much like Atsuko, struggled with the powerful chakra, however he, unlike Atsuko, had a lot less emotional sway and was able to bring down the chakra cloak. Seeing his opportunity Fox used his own gentle fist to cut off the chakra flow from Atsuko's right arm. After about a minuet Atsuko returned to normal and collapsed and Inoue was returned to his actual body back in the apartment building.

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><p>It was a long night, after an hour Shiro was able to wake up and had his insects synthesize an antidote, which he had then administered to the rest of the group as well. By the time they got to Atsuko's location she had managed to regain consciousness, and was in a state of terror. Contrary to the euphoric high that was induced by the Nine-Tails chakra in her system, Atsuko was now feeling the full weight of what she had done. This girl, who had avoided swatting at flies for fear of harming them, had killed no less than 10 people in the span of a couple of hours.<p>

"Atsuko..." Ever since the night of the parade Atsuko had been under house arrest and her arm re-bandaged, although they no longer function to hide the arm's mutation they were still able to limit the effects of the mutation. "Are you going to be okay?" Masunu asked carrying a box of Octo-balls for Atsuko.

"Oh fine, what's a little mass murder here and there?" Atsuko asked, sounding as miserable as she looked.

"I know that it's a little hard to take in..."

"I wonder how he felt, my father, when he found out that he had a monster inside him. There might have been a little bit of pride for him, playing a role in keeping a monster from hurting anybody else. Or at least he found out why everyone hated him so much. Either way it must have been a big weight off of his shoulders. He even eventually used him to save the whole world! But me..."

"What you got, what happened to you isn't going to save anyone, you're just going to turn into a monster. That's what you think."

"I killed those people Masunu!" Now there were tears welling up in Atsuko's eyes, this was getting harder and harder to endure.

"Do you still want to be a Ninja Atsuko?" Atsuko's pants scrunched up in her hands. "Because if so then they will just be the first of many. And by the way, the people you killed? They were responsible for a brutal terrorist attack on the Village, kidnapped and experimented on you when you were less than a day old, and not one of them were a citizen of Konoha. Take that in mind cousin." Masunu handed over the Box of Octo-balls to Atsuko. "Now eat!"

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><p>Shino's insects had led them back to the invader's regrouping area, or what was left of it aside for a ten foot deep crater, probably an implosion of some kind. Clearly these people didn't value their subordinates very much. Clean up was going smoothly, people in the village who could use the wood style chakra were few and far between, but they got all the buildings fixed within the span of a few minuets. The Damiyo's family was okay, unharmed both physically and mentally. Evidently by design.<p>

"Tsume, what are you doing now." Both of the young heirs were in the forest, just outside of the crater that had been formed in the middle of the forest by the implosion of the lost subordinates.

"Those knuckle heads left too much evidence behind! We need to find it before the village finds it themselves!" A frustrated Tsume stated while she dug through the dirt.

"You're worrying too much about this Tsume." Tsetsuna stated as he calmly leaned against the tree.

"And what would you do Mr. Smartypants!?" The young girl angrily snapped at her older brother.

"Not incriminate myself by digging around the same area that all the evidence would be in the vague hope that no one was watching?" Tsume straightened up with realization at her brother's remark.

"I hate you."

"I know, lets get out of here shall we?" With that the two siblings left the area, hoping that no one would notice that they were there.

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><p><strong>Review Section<strong>:

Helrio uzugaku: Agreed.


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